Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Delivers Remarks at the Citizens Budget Commission Dinner

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Good evening, everyone and thank you for that very warm welcome.  I want to thank Zach [Carter] for that kind introduction; for your many years of friendship; and for the inspiring example of public service you have set throughout your career.  The people of New York City are fortunate to have you as their Corporation Counsel.  I also want to thank Mayor [Bill] de Blasio for his leadership of this great city; for his devotion to the cause of justice; and for his determination to build a stronger and more united New York.  I’d also like to thank President [Carol] Kellerman for her long record of service and for inviting me here to receive this award.  There are two other groups I want to take a moment to acknowledge.  First, my colleagues from the Eastern District of New York, current and former, who continue to inspire me every day with their dedication and their commitment.  And my former colleagues at Hogan Lovells, who supported both my work and my commitment to public service.  True partners in the law, I could not have had a better law firm home.

To be recognized for civic service by the Citizens Budget Commission is a high honor.  As one of New York’s most respected watchdogs, you help to ensure that public funds are used as wisely as possible.  As an incubator of cutting-edge research, you provide an informed and impartial voice in fiscal policymaking.  And as a scrupulous monitor, you see to it that reforms are implemented as promised.  As I stand here tonight to accept this wonderful award, I am mindful of the mission that was set out by this organization more than 80 years ago, at a time of great crisis and desperate need: to serve the public at large, rather than narrow special interests; to make the most of precious public resources, whether they are financial or human; and to promote the well-being not only of our current residents, but of those who will inhabit our communities in years to come – and who will live with the consequences of the choices we make today.  It strikes me that, in the Justice Department’s work to improve America’s criminal justice system, we are driven by the same priorities: to serve the public interest; to use our resources wisely; and to keep our eyes fixed on the horizon, looking out for future Americans who will inherit our great country.

We’ve made important progress.  Through the Smart on Crime initiative, which my predecessor, Attorney General Eric Holder, launched in 2013, we reoriented our federal prosecution priorities in order to make better use of our finite resources and to more equitably apply the law.  And the results have been extremely encouraging: our prosecutors are charging fewer mandatory minimums and focusing on more serious drug offenders, without diminishing our plea and cooperation rates – and we’ve seen a drop in the federal prison population for the second year in a row after nearly 40 years of growth.  But if we are going to truly serve the public at large, we have to look not only at those entering the system; we have to look at those who are leaving it as well. 

Every year, more than 600,000 individuals come back to our neighborhoods after serving time in federal and state prisons and another 11.4 million individuals cycle through local jails.  Those are extraordinary numbers and they represent a tremendous amount of potential.  Sometimes the sheer size of these numbers, however, blunts our sensibilities to what they truly represent: people.  Every number is a person.  Behind every person is a family and surrounding every family is a community.  These are people who could contribute to our economy, who could support their families and who could transform their communities into better places to live.  If we are truly going to make the most of this precious resource, this human capital, we must ensure that these individuals have the tools and the skills and the opportunities they need to return to their communities not just as residents, but as leaders; equipped not only to survive, but to succeed.  We must ensure that our returning brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers – our fellow Americans – can truly return home.

We know this kind of transformation is possible.  In 1996, a man named Daryl Atkinson served 40 months in prison after pleading guilty to a first-time nonviolent drug crime.  Daryl entered prison as someone’s son, someone’s brother.  But when he was released, he realized that society saw him as just a number.  He faced a series of collateral consequences – he had lost his driver’s license, which made finding employment more difficult; he couldn’t qualify for student loans, which presented barriers to education; and he was unable to vote in his home state of Alabama, diminishing his stake in civic life.  And yet, through all of these obstacles and challenges, Daryl persevered.  He earned a bachelor’s degree and then a law degree.  He rose to become a Senior Staff Attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.  And today, he serves as the Justice Department’s first-ever Second Chance Fellow, advising the Federal Interagency Reentry Council – which I am proud to chair – as we seek to advance reentry efforts across the federal government.

We need to find ways to support more people like Daryl – motivated individuals who want to find good jobs, contribute to their communities and abide by the law.  And the Department of Justice is doing our part.  That’s why, with Daryl’s help, the Federal Interagency Reentry Council is working to promote innovative approaches to reintegration – from studying ways to reduce homelessness with the Department of Housing and Urban Development; to expanding Pell Grant eligibility with the Department of Education; to assisting municipalities with record-cleaning and expungement with the Department of Labor.  It’s why our Office of Justice Programs has disbursed $68 million in Second Chance Act grants to promising state and local reentry efforts in the last fiscal year alone.  It’s why we’re supporting programs like Federal Prison Industries, or FPI, which employs thousands of incarcerated individuals in order to help men and women find a new sense of purpose and develop concrete skills that they can bring back to their communities.   And it’s why we are designating the last week of April, as National Reentry Week to raise awareness of this issue through job fairs, mentorship programs and events for children of incarcerated parents, all designed to help prepare inmates for release. 

The success of these programs has tremendous implications for the safety of our neighborhoods, the health of our economy and the strength of our nation.  If we can reduce recidivism by helping motivated individuals successfully reenter society, we can reduce crime across the country – and make our neighborhoods better places to live, work and raise our children.  As my friend Bryan Stevenson says, “All of us are more than the worst thing we have ever done.”  If we give people who have served their time and been held accountable for their actions the same chance to rise above that worst thing that the rest of us get every day, it will not only benefit the individual – it will benefit the community and the country.  If we are truly determined to focus on the well-being of future Americans—whom CBC has called the most underrepresented interest of all – we have an obligation to look for ways that we can use our particular expertise and experience to help individuals find a better path in life, to help them find meaning and purpose; and ultimately, to help them be a part of moving our nation forward.

That is a charge the Department of Justice is proud to accept.  But it is not just our charge alone.  Fifty years ago, then-Senator Robert F. Kennedy – one of my predecessors as Attorney General – spoke not far from here, in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.  He was there to help launch the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, a groundbreaking partnership between residents and businesses that continues to endure.  On that day in 1966, Kennedy said, “The power to act is the power to command resources, of money and mind and skill.”  By that measure, the people gathered in this room have considerable power to act.  You have public platforms from which you can champion reform.  You have the networks and know-how to shape policy.  And you have the resources to create opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals eager to turn their lives around and join the work of building a brighter future – not just for themselves, but for all.  I urge you to choose to exercise the power to act.

That work is not easy.  Its pace is gradual, its hardships and frustrations are many and its results are often slow to appear.  But the history of our country is a history of individuals choosing to engage in that work: to move us ever so slightly forward, to lift us just a little higher, to build a stronger foundation for the next generation.  We undertake great things with no guarantee or foreknowledge of success, because that is the story of America.  This challenge is no different.  And because we have chosen that path time and time again, we have continued to expand the sphere of freedom and opportunity to more and more of our people.  Today, that work falls to us and I am confident that with the collaboration of dedicated organizations like the CBC, we will continue to engage the power to act and draw closer to the day when all Americans enjoy the opportunities they deserve as citizens of this great country.  I want to thank you for everything that you have already done in the service of that noble mission.  I want to ask for your continued partnership in expanding opportunity and broadening prosperity.  And I want to thank you, once again, for honoring me with this award.