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            Obama Visits Oklahoma Prison on Push for Justice Reform

   by VOA News

   U.S. President Barack Obama becomes the first sitting president to
   visit a federal prison as part of his push for fairer justice system
   and prison reform.

   Obama travels Thursday to El Reno prison in the midwestern state of
   Oklahoma, where he will meet separately with law enforcement officials
   and nonviolent drug offenders.

   In a speech earlier this week, Obama called for either reducing or
   eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes,
   reconsidering solitary confinement for prisoners and increasing job
   training programs for people while they are incarcerated.

   He also announced a federal review of the use of solitary confinement
   and urged Congress to pass a sentencing reform bill by year's end.

   The president has said that overly harsh sentences are responsible for
   the doubling of the U.S. prison population in the last 20 years.

   The United States is the world's largest jailer accounting for nearly
   25 percent of the world's prison population despite making up just less
   than five percent of the world's population.

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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-visits-oklahoma-prison-on-push-
   for-justice-reform/2864287.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-visits-oklahoma-prison-on-push-for-justice-reform/2864287.html