WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. President Barack Obama is set to start a nationwide criminal justice tour next week for reforming the nation's criminal justice system, by lessening prison overcrowding and redress overly harsh sentences.
'Much of our criminal justice system remains unfair. In recent years, more of our eyes have been opened to this truth,' Obama said in his weekly radio address.
Obama observed that the U.S. has locked up more non-violent offenders than ever before, for longer than ever before, compared to last few decades.
Justice means allowing other fellow Americans who had made mistake to pay their debt to society, and rejoin their community as active, rehabilitated citizens, he noted. Obama is planning to meet police chiefs and former prisoners in coming weeks.
Obama's comments came as the United states is stepping up efforts to release thousands of prisoners considered at low risk of returning to crime, after US Sentencing Commission eased its sentencing guidelines for drug possession.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2015 AFX News
