The Daily Signal - He Spent 14 Years in Prison. Here’s Why He’s Fighting For Criminal Justice Reform

Episode Date: February 26, 2021

Louis Reed spent nearly 14 years in prison on bank fraud and other charges. Since then, he has become an advocate for criminal justice reform and supported the First Step Act, a bipartisan measure to improve criminal justice outcomes, which was signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in December 2018. Reed joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to share his story and his vision for how Democrats and Republicans can work together on criminal justice reform, despite the toxic political climate. We also cover these stories: The Senate votes 64-35 to confirm Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, to head the Department of Energy. Mr. Potato Head goes gender neutral in name! Hasbro, the company that makes the beloved potato shaped toy, is removing the “Mr.” from the toys' packaging. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at a Senate committee hearing Thursday, questions Rachel Levine, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be assistant health secretary, on medical treatment for children with gender dysphoria. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, February 26th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Kate Trinco. Rachel Del Judas is currently in Florida at the conservative political action conference. She's talking with a number of conservative leaders and activists. Today, we share Rachel's conversation with Lewis Reed, who spent 14 years in prison for bank fraud and other charges. Reed shares the ways in which he is fighting for needed criminal justice reform. And don't forget, If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts.

And as always, please encourage others to subscribe. Now, onto our top news. Senator Rand Paul questioned Rachel Levine, President Joe Biden's nominee to be Assistant Health Secretary on medical treatment for children with gender dysphoria in a hearing Thursday. Here's part of their exchange via Senator Paul's YouTube channel. Dr. Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given horn. hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty, as well as surgical destruction of a minor's genitalia. Like surgical mutilation, hormonal interruption of puberty can permanently alter and prevent secondary sexual characteristics. The American College of Pediatricians reports that 80 to 95%

of pre-puberal children with gender dysphoria will experience resolution by late adolescents if not exposed to medical intervention and social affirmation. Dr. Levine, do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one-sex? Well, Senator, thank you for your interest in this question. Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed. And if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of Health, I would look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office and discussing the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine. The specific question was about minors.

Let's be a little more specific since you have aided the question. Do you support the government intervening to override the parent's consent to give a child puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and or amputation surgery of breast and genitalia? You have said that you're willing to accelerate the protocols for street kids. I'm alarmed that poor kids with no parents who are homeless and distraught, you would just go through this and allow that to happen to a minor. Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington and chair of the Senate Health Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee later in the hearing addressed Levine, per CNN, saying, I appreciated your thoughtful and medically informed response to Senator Paul's questions earlier in the hearing.

It is really critical to me that our nominees be treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications and the work ahead of us rather than on ideological and harmful misrepresentations like those we heard from Senator Paul earlier. On Thursday, the Senate voted 64 to 35 to confirm Jennifer Granholm as the new energy secretary. 14 Republicans joined all 50 Democrats to confirm the new head of the Department. of energy. Grand Home is the former governor of Michigan, and some Democrat leaders praised her work in Michigan during the confirmation hearing. I saw how she handled the difficult challenges facing her during the Great Recession, when the bottom dropped out of the auto industry in her state, Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia said, adding, she helped save the domestic auto industry. She diversified Michigan's economy. She brought in new investment in new income.

and she created new jobs, leaving no worker behind. But some Republicans were far less enthusiastic about Graham's appointment, such as Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, who said, President Biden has declared war on American energy and American energy workers. I cannot, in good conscience, vote to approve his nominee for Secretary of Energy. After being confirmed, Graham home tweeted, I'm obsessed with creating good-paying, clean energy jobs in all corners of America in service of addressing our climate crisis. I am impatient for results. Now, let's get to work. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is responding to allegations of sexual harassment against Governor Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat, by saying it's time for an independent investigation.

In an essay on Medium this week, former Cuomo, aide, Lindsay Boylan, alleged that Cuomo had kissed her on the lips without her permission and called her by his ex-girlfriend's name, among other things. Cuomo press secretary Caitlin Gerard said, per CNN, as we said before, Ms. Boylan's claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false. De Blasio said in a press conference Thursday, per the Washington examiner, these allegations are really disturbing. Let's be clear about that. They're really disturbing.

We have to, as New Yorkers, we got to take this seriously. We need a full and independent investigation. This is just unacceptable. This kind of behavior, if true, is unacceptable in any public servant and anybody. Mr. Potato Head has gone gender neutral. That's right. Hasbro, the company that makes the beloved potato-shaped toy, is removing the mister from packaging. Kids will now be able to create whatever kind of family they want with the new Potato Head family pack,

whether that be two moms, two dads, or a mom and a dad. A statement on the Hasbro website announcing the change reads, Hasbro is making sure all feel welcome in the potato head world by officially dropping the Mr. from the Mr. Potatohead brand name and logo to promote gender equality and inclusion. In the fall, the new Potato Family Pack, create your potato. head family will celebrate the many faces of families allowing kids to imagine and create their own potato head family. Now stay tuned for Rachel's conversation with Lewis Reed about criminal justice reform. Americans use firearms to defend themselves between 500,000 and 2 million times every year.

God forbid that my mother is ever faced with a scenario where she has to stop a threat to her life. But if she is, I hope politicians protected by professional arms. security didn't strip her of the right to use the firearm she can handle most competently. To watch the rest of Heritage expert Amy Swearer's testimony on assault weapons before the House Judiciary Committee head to the Heritage Foundation YouTube channel. There you'll find talks, events, and documentaries backed with the reputation of the nation's most broadly supported Public Policy Research Institute. Start watching now at heritage.org slash YouTube. And don't

forget to subscribe and share. I'm joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Lewis Reed. He's the director of organizing and partnerships at Dream Corps Justice. Louis, it's great to have you with us on the Daily Single podcast. Oh, it's great to be here. Well, thanks for being with us. So first off, I just want to talk a little bit about your own personal story. You spent 14 years in the system.

Can you tell us about just a little bit about your story and what all happened? Sure. So you would presume that my story began in 2000 when I was indicted by the United States federal government. and sentenced to nearly 16 years in federal prison, nearly 14 years of which I served. However, my story begins when I was approximately five years old, when both of my parents were indicted by the United States federal government. My father serving nearly seven years in federal prison, and my mother serving nearly five years in federal prison,

and I was raised by my maternal grandmother. And so my introduction into the criminal legal system, I should say my exposure began when I was in my formative years. And so I served nearly 14 years in federal prison. for bank fraud and fell in possession with an ammunition. But while I was incarcerated, I realized one of three things. First and foremost, I had an unapologetic transformation of my mind, having adopted the Christian principles and philosophies of Jesus. The second thing is that I realize is that those closest to the problem are also closest to the solution, but further from resources and power.

And so that lit a righteous indignation in me. I knew that I had been a part of the problem. of something that bankrupted communities and that bankrupted other people. And I wanted to change that. And I wanted to change that through advocacy. I wanted to change that through organizing. And ultimately, I wanted to change that by being an example. But the third thing that happened with me

was that an education passport opened up in my mind where I had the benefit of matriculating through university, earning two bachelor's degrees, and having gone on to earn my master's degree in clinical counseling. And so I understand not just the benefits of education, but I also understand the benefits of rehabilitation well. That's awesome. Going back to your time in prison, are there any specific things that you

remember or experiences that you've kind of taken with you that, you know, obviously take you back to your time there, but you remember today and that fuels why you do what you do? Without question, you know, I saw, the entire time that I was in prison, I never met an inmate. And our listening audience may say, how is that possible? Like you're full, you're around so-called inmates. But I never met an inmate. I never met a convict. I never met a ex-affirm. defender, I met brothers, I met fathers, I met human beings who had made just some poor decisions, but none of us should ever be reduced down to the poorest decision that we've ever made. One of the things I always say is that my history should not preclude my destiny.

My history is not greater than my destiny. And I remember there was one defining moment in particular where I had a conversation with a correctional officer who essentially told me that. that he had put his son through college and his son was going to go into the Bureau of Prisons. And, prospectively, his grandson were going to the Bureau of Prisons as a result of people such as me. And, you know, I wanted to break that pathology. I never wanted someone to be employed because of me making intentional and deliberate decisions to be incarcerated. And so, you know, that's one of the things that fuels me, and that's one of the things that I keep with me.

I also say this as well. I have had the benefit of being mentored by correctional officers as well. You know, one of a very good friend of mine who I still stay in contact with was a former warden who told me, look, Lewis Reed, I see your potential. And I never want to see you back on a four o'clock count ever again. And so I'm going to invest in your leadership. I'm going to invest in the potential that I see in you. so that you can ultimately be doing what it is that you're doing now. That's incredible. Well, can you tell us about your organization Dream Corps Justice? Yeah, so Dream Corps Justice, formerly known as Cut 50.

We're co-founded by CNN political commentator Van Jones and also Jessica Jackson, who happens to be the legal mentor to Kim Kardashian. We are the winningness criminal justice organization in recent history, having passed more than 30 bills in less than four years, including the Federal First Step Act, which to date has freed more than 16,000. people from federal custody. 91% of the people who got released under the Federal First Step Act crack

cocaine provision happened to be African American, something that really resonates with me as a black man in the United States of America. But look, I gave you that 16,000 number, but what I didn't tell you is this. That means that there's more than 500,000 years of human freedom restored back into our community, and that is something that we're exceptionally proud of. Well, actually, my next question was about the Criminal Justice Act, the first Step Act. Can you tell us a little bit about how it was a bipartisan effort and what your perspective of it was and a little bit about just you put a lot of work into it.

Just a little bit about that history and work you put into this legislation becoming law. So look, I say that the First Step Act was the equivalent of the little engine that could. It was an impossible bill that we got done during an impossible time. But we had people who were extremely extraordinary and we would just not get. give up on it. So look, it was a bill that was introduced, bipartisan introduced by Hakeem Jeffries and former Congressman Doug Collins, who was a Republican. And they came together at the prodding of Jared Kushner to introduce bipartisan legislation to get something done. You have to consider this. We got something done when everyone said that nothing

could get done in Washington. We got, according to the New York Times, the most significant criminal justice reform legislation passed in a generation. That means a generation going back to the 1994 crime bill. And we were exceptionally proud of that. Look, we didn't have a big pack to fund us. We didn't have money hand over fist. The only thing that we had was the grit, the determination, and the heart and soul of grassroots organizers, people such as Ruby Welch, people such as Karen Morrison, people such as Topeka K. Sam, people such as Davis Safavian, who's at the, uh, ACU. So we, I mean, look, we had, we had a bipartisan coalition of unlikely allies to come together for a common purpose, united around common pain, and ultimately the end result was the passage of

the First Step Act in December of 2018, which by the way happened right before a few, a few hours, literally a few hours before it, the largest government shut down in the history of the United States of America. Well, speaking of the First Step Act, being bipartisan, how are Democrats and Republicans able to work on this together. You talked about this a little bit, but I want to talk a little bit more. How are they able to do this together, given the toxic political climate that has been, you know, happening in recent years? Can you talk a bit more about the victory there despite the differences of party? Very simply. And I don't have to articulate this with grammatical profundity. Here's the thing. Republicans at their best believe in liberty, Democrats at their best believe in justice,

and all of us as Americans at our best should be believing in liberty and justice for all, period. Well, one of the programs your organization is working on is called Dignity for Incarcerated Women. Can you tell us about this program? Yes, so we have been able to pass more than 10 legislation, 10 bills, I should say, 10 legislative bills within that four-year period that has impacted dignity for women who are incarcerated. And what that means is that this, in the states where we pass those bills, women will no longer be shackled while they are given birth. They will no longer be a strip search by the opposite sex.

and they will have access to free feminine hygiene products. I mean, look, you would think that this should not take an act of a state legislature in order to do so. But unfortunately, that is what we had to do. And so our dignity for incarcerated women's campaign sounds exactly like that. We want to ensure that women, if they are incarcerated, that they are not going to be diminished and that the very sensitive needs of a woman is going to be top of mind for correctional officials. Well, something that we try to do a lot at Daily Signals, put personal stories behind these policy issues to really show people, you know, what the issue is and how it impacts people.

And so I'm just curious, are there any personal stories you can share about the impact of dignity for incarcerated women from women from women you've worked with or stories you've heard, the impact of that? Without question. You know, I remember one story distinctly, as we were advocating for the First Step Act, and there is a component of dignity from incarcerated women within that bill. As we were advocating for the first step back, I was with my colleague Topeka K. Sam, who was our dignity director. And we were in a congressional meeting with an unnamed senator. And she began to talk about how she had to quantify her cycle. And me and my male ignorance and all of my male ignorance, I asked her, what do you mean by quantifying your cycle?

And Rachel, she began to tell a very graphic story about how when she was incarcerated, because they only gave. the women limited amount of feminine sanitary napkins, she had an excessive flow. And because she had an excessive flow, she would literally have to take her spent sanitary napkins, put them in a bag, bring them to an officer. He or she would count one, two, three, four, five, and then issue her more sanitary napkins. And I just find that, I'm a guy. And I just find that absolutely appallel. And so we want to fight against, you know, things like that. A woman should never, never. I mean, something that is as human and as biological as a flow for a woman.

A woman should never have to suffer that indignity. And that's what we're fighting for. Well, you mentioned this a little bit, but your program also works a lot with pregnant moms who are incarcerated. Can you tell us more about what that program, how it works, what it does? Yeah. And so, I mean, look, you know, one of the things that we want to do is we are fighting to ensure that women stay connected with their children, right? Women are the bedrock, mothers are the bedrock of society. And so we want to make sure that, number one, that they stay connected with their children.

Number two, that if they are incarcerated, that they are going to be incarcerated within a certain proximity of their last known address so that they can, you know, stay, have that social interaction with their children. We want to make sure that they have video visits. In the event, especially considering we're in a coronavirus pandemic and prisons and jails across the country are shut down from social visits, we want to ensure that they have access, their children have access to them and then a whole bunch more. So we are working with U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass's office. We're working with grassroots organizers literally across the country to ensure that mothers stay connected with their children. Well, some Americans talk about how they're concerned about criminal justice reform saying that they think it could lead to more crime. What's your response to those concerns when people talk about them? I don't have any more. I don't have any concerns about that.

I mean, look, quite frankly, what we have seen is this. There is nothing factual. There's nothing statistical that is indicating that just because we're in a pandemic and people who are going to have been released from prison, that crime is going to spike. I believe it was my very good friend of mine who told me that if you ever want to see an indicator of crime, all you have to look at is car thefts. And the moment that you don't have car thefts going up, because it doesn't matter where you are on the spectrum in society, whether you are participating in continual criminal enterprising or you are John and Jane Q citizen, if your car is stolen, you are going to report that to police. And so this came from a former police officer who is now one of the foremost thought leaders. And so Jason Pye. And essentially, if you look at car thefts, if car thefts are not going up, then there is no statistical or factual or nothing to bolster that argument that crime is actually going to go up.

So look, we're not concerned about that. We're concerned about the people who, the more than 2.2 million people were currently incarcerated, the more than 70 million people who currently have felony convictions within our communities, and we want to make sure those individuals are reenfranchised. So we talked about the First Step Act and the success that that was, despite, you know, different perspectives and Democrats and Republicans actually working together. Where do you see room for more to be done when it comes to legislation, when it comes to lobbying? Like, what else needs to happen to continue to work on reforming the criminal justice system?

That was literally the first step. a first step to a long road of recovery. You have to consider that we have been on this downward trend in the United States of America since the 60s or 70s as relates to mass incarceration. That's approximately 40 years of where we are now. So look, we need to focus on sentence and reform. We need to focus on conspiracy laws. We need to focus on, again, dignity for incarcerated women.

We need to focus on juvenile justice. We need to focus on the death penalty. The criminal justice, the criminal legal system is like a five-year-old trying to wrap her arms around an elephant. It is just too big. It's too massive. But if one person put a hand on the trunk, if another person put a hand on the foot, if another person put a hand on the air, ultimately we are going to be able to cover this entire system. And that's what it is that we have to do. Well, then just big picture, Lewis, where do you see the biggest challenges but as well opportunities for criminal justice reform?

Look, the challenges are always in bureaucracy, right? Congressional bureaucracy on the state level and in a federal level as well, a legislative bureaucracy. But I am of the notion that so long as you have the people, people like Khalil Cumberbatch, who is at the Council on Criminal Justice, so long as you have people like Tony Lewis Jr., who is in the District of Columbia, continuing to fight for the release of his. his father. So long as you have people who are of goodwill and people who just refuse to give up, no matter what obstacle that we're faced with, no matter what bureaucracy that we're confronted with, we are going to rise to the occasion. Look, people who have been impacted by the criminal justice

system, we have the resiliency of a spring and a ballpoint pen. We're like the 80s time X commercial. We take a look at it and keep on taking. We've already been to the bottom. And for us, we have nowhere else to go except up. And so we are not going to allow, any legislative staleness get in our way. We are not going to allow any congressional bureaucracy to get in our way. We are going to continue to fight, and we're going to continue to speak truth of power. Well, Louis, thank you so much for joining us on the Daily Signal podcast. It's been great having you with us.

It's been my pleasure to even being on thanks. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and IHeart Radio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening and we'll be back with you all on Monday. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans,

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