Chicago Mayor Johnson: ‘The Addiction on Jails and Incarceration in This Country, We Have Moved Past That; It Is Racist, It Is Immoral’

EXCERPT:

JOHNSON: “Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars for a publicity stunt to invoke chaos and terror, the federal government should spend that money on proven solutions to crime and violence reduction. We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence. We’ve already tried that and we’ve ended up with the largest prison population in the world without solving the problems of crime and violence. The addiction on jails and incarceration in this country, we have moved past that. It is racist, it is immoral, it is unholy, and it is not the way to drive violence down. (applause) We cannot return to the same failed strategies that got us here in the first place. Under the previous presidential administration, we requested more federal resources to address gun violence in our city. We continue to make that same call. We have made significant progress on our own, but there is so much more that we can do if we had real support from the federal government.”