Obama launches criminal justice tour: 'Something I’ll keep fighting for'
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Saturday that he'll launch a nationwide criminal justice tour next week, an effort that he says will "highlight some of the Americans who are doing their part to fix our criminal justice system."
"Much of our criminal justice system remains unfair," Obama said in his weekly radio address Saturday morning. "In recent years, more of our eyes have been opened to this truth. We can’t close them anymore. And good people, of all political persuasions, are eager to do something about it."
The first stop in the tour will be in Charleston, W.Va. next Wednesday, where he'll host a town-hall-style meeting on the prescription drug abuse and heroin epidemic.The White House says Obama will talk about local, state and federal efforts as well as private sector initiatives addressing the crisis.
Obama said he'll also meet in coming weeks with police chiefs and former prisoners. Details on those tour stops are expected to be released next week.
In his radio address, Obama threw his support behind bipartisan proposals in Congress to shorten mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenses and reward convicts who participate in prison programs with shorter sentences.
"This is progress — not liberal ideas or conservative ideas, but common-sense solutions to the challenges we face," Obama said. "Justice has never been easy to achieve, but it’s always been worth fighting for. And it’s something I’ll keep fighting for as long as I serve as your president."