‘It Is Fundamentally Cruel’: Cory Booker Laments US’s Treatment Of Incarcerated Individuals

2 months ago

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) spoke about the trauma imposed on women who give birth while incarcerated and on all people in prison.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00pregnant and postpartum women in America's prisons and jails. And I'll

00:10yield to Senator Booker. Thank You Mr. Chairman. There's a wide room here for

00:16bipartisan work and I'm grateful for my experiences with the FIRST STEP Act when

00:22we came forward on these issues and found from the White House then that the

00:29Trump White House to Republican colleagues and others. I want to

00:33particularly step thank Senator Durbin who really has been the champion of so

00:37many of these issues and under his leadership and having the chance to

00:41partner with him on the FIRST STEP Act we were able to make some progress. But

00:47clearly we still live in a nation when what goes on in our prisons is horrible

00:54and what compounds that horror is the abject lack of knowledge that these

01:00things are going on. I mean I'm still shocked that our government which is

01:08responsible or excuse me our Article 1 branch of the Constitution, Article 1

01:13branch being Congress, has a responsibility to provide oversight. We

01:19spend billions of dollars to incarcerate human beings but there's an utter lack

01:23of knowledge about what our regular routine practices in our American

01:29prisons, not to mention our American prisons and jails. And the testimony here

01:37today which is gut-wrenching and painful and I thank the witnesses for being here

01:44and retelling what has to be trauma in your lives and that is your family. It is

01:51so urgent that this truth-telling happen because it shocks the moral conscience

01:55of a country that allows these practices to go on. And here is the painful truth

02:04that we throw people into environments that re-traumatize folks who often have

02:10been traumatized and most of the people that go to our prisons and jails come

02:16out again now more harmed and more hurt than when they went in. And so if this is

02:26really about public safety we do things that undermine and insult the idea that

02:37our prisons and jails should be places yes of punishment but also should be

02:43places that empower people that when they come out they should never return.

02:49That empower people on pathways of redemption and rehabilitation. And it is

02:58grievously painful to know these details only some of which are being talked

03:08about here about what happens to the most vulnerable people in our society

03:14who are survivors of sexual trauma who struggle with mental health issues who

03:23have often been victimized and who often struggle with addiction that we would

03:32put them into an environment that would so compound these problems. I cannot tell

03:40you the horrors of being put into solitary confinement. Most countries call

03:46what we do to vulnerable people torture. It's humbugger to you being in the

03:53immediate hours of postpartum and being put in solitary confinement after being

03:59traumatized not for days but for weeks is unconscionable that it happens in

04:05this country. Unconscionable what you were put through. Senator Durbin says it

04:13is cruel. It is fundamentally cruel. And I know Ms. Suffren knows this. Dr. Suffren

04:21knows this. That all the data shows that we empower women. We facilitate their

04:28connections to their children. We give them not just medical treatment but

04:35sociopsychological support that they actually have recidivism rates that

04:41crash to the floor. And the bonds of their families not only are they

04:49supported but the data shows clearly that even their children's run-ins with

04:56the law go far down. We know from evidence and research that trauma is

05:04generational and we are creating not only assaults on individual dignity of

05:10the women but we are hurting and harming families in ways that will haunt our

05:18society and those individuals directly affected. And so Mr. Chairman I am

05:24grateful for this hearing but I ache. Every prison and jail I've gone to shows

05:32me how much we waste taxpayer dollars causing more and more harm to our

05:38society and individuals we incarcerate and how there are obvious obvious ways

05:46that we could be investing in the well-being of people behind bars that

05:51would empower them to be successful in lives and their lives and empower their

05:56families. This is one of the more shameful elements of American society

06:03when all the data all the research all the evidence shows that we could do this

06:11in a better way that would make us safer and stronger as a society. I do hope we

06:19continue to hold hearings on this because I I know my colleagues on the

06:25other side of the aisle. There is no way Mr. Chairman that that shining lights on

06:30this can do anything but move us and inspire us to find bipartisan solutions

06:36so that these horrors that belong in a long-forgotten Byzantine age should not

06:43exist in our society today. Again I'm sorry that you had to come here. This

06:51should not be necessary and what's even more painful is to know that the stories

06:55you told are not rare and not unusual but exist all across this country at a

07:03rate that should shock the conscience of us all. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you

07:10Senator Booker. As you all may have noted Senator Ossoff had to depart.

‘It Is Fundamentally Cruel’: Cory Booker Laments US’s Treatment Of Incarcerated Individuals

Category

Transcript

Recommended