Press Releases
05/22/2016
Transcript: Gov. Malloy Discusses Second Chance Society on Hot 93.7 FM
(HARTFORD, CT) - The Office of Governor Dannel P. Malloy today released the following transcript of the Governor's appearance on Hot 93.7 FM's morning show, which aired at approximately 8:30 this morning:
Gov. Malloy: I stopped by to talk about some things. I think that one of the issues I've taken on over the last few years is to try to make our criminal justice work better for people. And I think one of the tough problems that's going around right now is there are a lot of people who are just stuck in jail because they're poor. They can't make bail. 90 percent of people who get arrested make bail. The ten percent who don't, generally speaking, are poor. And, I don't think people should be in jail because they're poor. It doesn't make a lot of sense - particularly when you consider it costs us $168 a night to put them up. So we have people - I looked at the figures last week. We have people in jail for bail under a couple hundred dollars. But it's costing us $168 a night, pre-trial - they haven't been convicted of anything - to keep them in jail. In fact, it costs us about $58,000 a day to keep poor people in jail, awaiting trial.
Nancy Barrow: Wow.
Gov. Malloy: Yea, it's kind of crazy.
Nancy Barrow: So the taxpayers are paying that?
Gov. Malloy: Yea, you.
Nancy Barrow: I'm paying that?
Gov. Malloy: Yea, you're paying it.
Nancy Barrow: Well that just seems stupid. Can we do something so we don't have to pay those taxes?
Gov. Malloy: I'm trying to do it. But then people say, "Well, you're trying to let people out of jail." 90 percent of people who get arrested get out on bail. The people who aren't getting out on bail are not getting out because they're poor. And why should you, the poor taxpayer, have to pay for the poor person who's not been convicted of anything. I mean, it's a little crazy.
Nancy Barrow: It is a little crazy.
Gov. Malloy: And then, I think the other thing is part of what's happened I think is we got so invested in permanent punishment that we forgot about permanent reformation. We want people to do better, not do worse. And when people are incarcerated awaiting trial for as little as 8-14 days, their lifetime outcomes change dramatically. And why? Listen, if you're poor and you're living in a single room occupancy type setting, you lose your housing - if you're in jail for 8 days. You lose your job - if you're in jail eight days. You lose your contact with friends and support groups - if you're in jail for eight to 14 days, 60 days, 90 days. There are people awaiting trial in jail 90 days at very low bail.
Nancy Barrow: I can't imagine that.
Gov. Malloy: Nobody can imagine it when I explain it to them. And then people push back, "Well you're just trying to let everybody out of jail." Stop. Ninety percent of people get out. They have the wherewithal to get the money to, or somebody posts it, or they have it in their account, or that sort of thing. I'm talking about simply people stuck in jail because they can't come up with a few hundred bucks to $2,000.
Nancy Barrow: How do you change it?
Gov. Malloy: I'm trying to change the law. That's what I do. I do it on a daily basis trying to move the state forward.
Nancy Barrow: So what's the vernacular? What would the law - how would you change that? How do you change the law? How do you do that?
Gov. Malloy: You basically say that for misdemeanors, we're not going to have money bail. Because, again, I want to be very clear, I want to drill down on this. 90 percent of people are getting out anyway. So the only people who are stuck, that you're supporting in jail to the tune of $168 are poor people. And does it make sense to lock up poor people that way at such a great cost to you? So I mean, I think that's part of it. We also have to look at how we treat people. I think we could have - in fact we have a substantially better criminal justice system right now. We have a 48 year low in crime in Connecticut. In 2014, our violent crime dropped 2.5 times the national average. Our prison population is down. We've taken 16 and 17 year olds out of the adult system. And you know what? As a result, we have fewer people under the age of 21 incarcerated than at any time in the recent past. So I had people look at it. I said, "I want you to look at the adult prison population over 25. Tell me how many of those people were in jail before the age of 21. You know what the percentage is? 75 percent. But we've cut that population by 52 percent by being smart on crime, as opposed to wasting money on crime.
Nancy Barrow: I know that violent criminals, we're tough on. But, for drug offenses - are you - have you made changes? Because it was a mandatory sentence at first.
Gov. Malloy: We made some of those changes last year. It was a mandatory sentence. It was treated as a felony. We treat almost all simple drug possessions as misdemeanors now. Which is the right way to handle it. What we want to do is get people help. A lot of people who get arrested for drugs suffer from depression. They suffer from anxiety. Increasingly, we see some people who are veterans suffering from post-traumatic syndrome as well. Let's get people help, as opposed to you paying $168 a night to keep them in jail.
Nancy Barrow: Do you think eventually that we'll have marijuana legalized for that purpose?
Gov. Malloy: Listen, we do have marijuana legalized for medical purposes. And we do not treat marijuana, small amounts of marijuana, as a criminal offense. I'm comfortable there. I don't want to encourage usage because I don't think it's a great drug. It has applicability for certain other medical maladies. So I think we have the right balance. We're not arresting people for simple possession. Let me point out - we did that in 2011. As a result, there are 8,000 fewer arrests a year. So that means 8,000 fewer chances for some, primarily young, person to end up with a criminal record. I think that's a good statistic to keep in the back of your mind. We've been reforming our criminal justice system in Connecticut since 2011 and we've done it very well. At the same time, we've driven down crime very substantially, driven down recidivism - that's people leaving jail and coming back. We've gotten the youth out of our jails. Let's keep building a better system. Let's save ourselves some money. Let's save some lives. I mean, the reality, somebody ends up with a criminal record - they're not going to get a decent job, they may not qualify for decent housing. In many cases, they can't even qualify for a student loan.
DJ Buck: You know it's funny, that 10 percent you're talking about could have done the same crime as someone in the 90 percent. But the person in the 90 percent just had the money for bail.
Gov. Malloy: They did. What I'm saying is that we should not in America be incarcerating people because they're poor. It doesn't make any sense.
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