Obama Becomes The First Sitting U.S President To Visit A Prison.

As part of Obama's bid to reform the U.S very expensive correctional system, he made an historic visit to El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma. He met about six inmates who were jailed for drug related offences. The U.S correctional system presently cost the U.S tax payer $80 Billion a year. 

Obama believes the U.S jail far too many people, he wants to curb the number of people using the correctional facility and end minimum sentence system. He believes the government should be able to distinguish between a really dangerous person and a kid that just made a mistake.

The U.S prisoners account for 1 third of the world's prisoners but the U.S population is less than 5 percent of the world's population. The U.S jail more people than the top 35 countries in Europe combined.  

Some excerpts from his interview.....

"This is an outstanding institution within the system, and yet they've got enormous overcrowding issues."

"I think we have a tendency sometimes to almost take for granted, or think it's normal, that so many young people end up in our criminal justice system," Mr Obama said.

"It's not normal. It's not what happens in other countries.

"We have to reconsider whether 20-year, 30-year, life sentences for nonviolent crimes is the best way for us to solve these problems."

"What is normal is teenagers doing stupid things," Obama said.

Recounting his discussion with inmates, he added: "When they describe their youth, these are young people who made mistakes that aren't that different from the mistakes I made, and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made."

"The difference is that they did not have the kind of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes."