Rappers, Sports Teams Owners Launch Prison Reform Movement
VAUSE: Millions of Americans would actually be</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Got to rug up, right. I remember you telling me once, that's a term you guys use in Australia -- rug up.</s>VAUSE: Rug it up. Yes.</s>JAVAHERI: Absolutely. This is the pattern for that, you know. When you're talking 20 below, 30 below, that's one thing. You can certainly layer up for those sort of pattern and temperatures. But when you get to 40, 50, in some cases 60 below zero Celsius pushing in excess of 70 below zero Celsius in portions of the Midwest. Now, we're talking about really nothing you have in your closet no matter how many layers you put on will do much for you. You would need scientifically designed clothing and multiple layers of that from boots, all the way up to your mitten and also gloves and hats and such to be able to kind of protect yourself from these extreme elements. And we're talking about 54 below zero in northern Minnesota. That is minus 65 Fahrenheit. That was the wind chill measured across that region. And this sort of a pattern expected to continue for at least another, we'll say, 36 to 48 hours. And we do have wind chills even at this hour in the city of Chicago at minus 37 degrees. And certainly schools have been closed across this region because of the dangers of the outdoors for any extended period. And notice, upwards of nearly 30 records expected to be set on Wednesday. Another nearly 40 records expected to be set not just from the Midwest but even into the northeast going in towards Thursday morning. And the pattern, as you look at the morning forecast temperatures, the single lowest temp potentially in the city of Chicago in its recorded history is expected over the next few hours. And notice, it warms up dramatically back to what is normal for this time of year. But before we get there it's certainly going to feel the brunt of this. And then we actually climb up above what is average for this time of year. So we go from the minus 30 range in Chicago to above say 7 or 8 degrees come Sunday into Monday -- John. So a rapid warming trend at least once we get through these next couple of days.</s>VAUSE: It's so cold in Chicago it's affected the supply of deep dish pizza. That's how cold it is.</s>JAVAHERI: That's pretty cold, yes.</s>VAUSE: That's pretty cold. Thanks -- Pedram.</s>JAVAHERI: Yes.</s>VAUSE: What will they say years from now about the U.S. justice system? Justice it seems depends on skin color and social class. A justice system which has seen millions placed in mass incarceration, in many cases private prisons run by publicly-traded companies. The two biggest in the U.S. are Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group. They have a combined revenue of more than $2 billion. What about a drug war which has lasted a generation but waged almost entirely on poor people of color who once released face the collateral consequences of serving time losing the right to vote or denied a driver's license or decreased access to basic social services like housing or food stamps. Rapper Meek Mill has been a high profile poster child for the racial bias which seems to be part of the DNA of the Justice system. For the past 10 years he's been in and out of prison for a variety of charges and probation violation. "Rolling Stone" reports he spent 30 million in legal fees. In 2017 because of his long criminal record, a Philadelphia judge sentenced him to up to four years in a medium security prison mostly for minor violations including popping a wheelie on his motorcycle and not wearing a helmet. That was an absurdity too far for Mill's friend, Michael Rubin, a billionaire businessman and co-owner of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. And from that moment the Reform Alliance was born. Michael Rubin, Meek Mill and a diverse group of wealthy business executives, owners of sports teams, and entertainers dedicated to changing a system which continues to defy serious reform. And Michael Rubin joins us now from New York. And we also have Van Jones with us in Los Angeles. So good to see you both. Thanks for coming in.</s>MICHAEL RUBIN, OWNER, PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: Thanks for having us.</s>VAUSE: Ok. Michael -- fill in some of the blanks between November 2017 and that jail sentencing and the event last week which saw the official launch of the self-described Reform Avengers group.</s>RUBIN: Yes. For me November 6, 2017 was a life changing event. Sitting in that courtroom to watch one of my closest friends being sent to prison for absolutely no reason and watching a probation officer and district attorney both recommend no sentence and then watching the judge sentence him to two to four years which is something I never believed could have happened. It was completely surreal. I just didn't believe it could actually happen. And as soon as that happened, I said to Meek, I will not stop and Jay-Z said I will not stop until we get you out of prison. And for me what happened was I thought this was a one-off problem for Meek. But what I realized was this was a gigantic issue that I was completely unaware of. And as soon as the original arresting officer came forward and said, Meek didn't actually point the gun which is what he was charged of 12 years ago. And then we still couldn't get him out of prison when we realized that</s>VAUSE: And then, you know, there's no shortage of data which shows the racial discrimination within the justice system. Back in 2016, for example, the Sentencing Project found "Blacks are nearly four times as likely as whites to be arrested for drug offenses. Others they put that number at six times. And 2.5 times as likely to be arrested for drug possession. This is despite the evidence that whites and blacks use drugs at roughly the same rate. You know, numbers go on and on and on. You know, this is the end result of not just a generation of discrimination but generations. Where do you even start to try and affect change here? Where do you spend the $50 million Michael and his friends have chipped in?</s>VAN JONES, CNN HOST: What we're going to do is actually start smart. If you look at the six million-plus people who are caught up in the criminal justice system two million are locked up, but there are four million that are caught up on probation and parole. And even the way that you started the segment, now he's gone to prison multiple times. You would think that Meek Mill was out there being a carjacker and doing terrible stuff. He had one phony charge against him when he was 19 and then there was no new crime ever committed. These are non-crime, technical violations -- showing up late for a meeting or popping a wheelie and then you're being sent back to prison. And not just him. What happens to you when you're 50 minutes late for a meeting with your probation officer and he or she said you go back to prison now for a year. You lose your job. You lose your home. You lose your kids for no new crime. This is happenings to millions of people. So the revolving door that everybody talks about, the form it takes is a punitive dysfunctional probation and parole system. And so Mike Rubin and Meek Mill said let's fix that. And so I'm the CEO to bring all these superstars together to get this done. Once you break this revolving door instead of having a trapdoor, you have a spring board to real help you're going to see a dramatic reduction in the number of people who stay stuck in the system.</s>VAUSE: You know, the reality TV star Kim Kardashian -- she's been dubbed the princess of prison reform. She's helped with clemency for a number of inmates. This week, she went to the California state capital of Sacramento. There's a push underway to let parolees actually vote. She tweeted about the trip. She received overwhelming praise and encouragement for the most part. There's one or two snarky comments. Kevin McCarty also tweeted -- he received just a couple of comments that are mostly negative, you know, like this one. "Photo op, anyone who supports this mess does not deserve my respect. Why the hell would anyone support reform?" There was this one, "Why would you do this? Why should criminals vote? So Michael to you -- why does it take someone like a Kim Kardashian to try and win over America? For someone like you put this really on the map. You know this sort of high profile endorsement to try and actually effect change? Because it seems that there is a lot of resistance out there to take out the celebrity status or, you know, fix what is essentially a broken system?</s>RUBIN: Yes. I think it is sad to acknowledge this. But I think when you're someone who is in the system or you're somebody who comes from, you know, a minority, I think it is hard for people to believe them and that's completely wrong and it's offensive. But I think when you've got people who come from a different background and they come out and show how wrong this is, I think it adds credibility. You know, great example of that -- I remember when I took Robert Kraft to prison to go visit me. And Robert walked out of there just completely changed. He couldn't believe what he was seeing because it was so offensive to see this great individual he's known for a while stuck in prison for not committing any crime. And I think when Robert Kraft went out and spoke, when I spoke, when some of the other people came and spoke on Meek's behalf, it helped to really bring awareness to the issue. And I think one of the big objectives we have is to really educate people. I never believed before November 6 of 2017 that you went to jail if you didn't commit a crime. I didn't know somebody like Meek could go to prison multiple times. I didn't believe they could go to prison for a day if you don't commit a crime.</s>VAUSE: I want to play a clip from a documentary which was released a few years ago. It's called "13th" as in the 13th Amendment. And the few words which say slavery would no longer exist except for punishment for crime. The film maker Ava DuVernay makes the argument that the U.S. prison system is actually a continuation of slavery.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you got out of that was a rapid transition to a mythology of black criminality.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- beast that needed to be controlled.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You better believe it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It became virtually impossible for a politician to run and appear soft on crime.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The kinds of</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millions of dollars will be allocated for prison and jail facilities.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three strikes and you are out.</s>VAUSE: Ok. So Van -- you know, what you're trying to do here when you say justice reform -- it's a lot bigger than just the prison system and the court system and sentencing. This goes to the very core, the very DNA of what this country is about.</s>JONES: Well, you know, this country has always been about two things that don't really go together. You have the founding reality which, you know, does have to do with slavery, has to do with, you know, stolen land from Native Americans, et cetera. But never forget you also have that founding dream of, you know, equality before the law. And the founding dream that, you know, all of us are created equal. And those two ideas have been -- the founding reality ugly and unequal. The founding dream about equality. And every generation, we've got to close the gap between those two ideas on the side of justice. And so we're not the first generation to do it. We're not the last. But this is that great freedom movement for our generation. You have that freedom movement for women, for African-Americans, for LGBTQ. We have a whole subcategory of people now that are being unfairly treated, put in prison for stuff that kinds are doing on Ivy League campuses every day. People do it in yacht clubs every day. It's wrong. And you now have a great freedom movement building in the country to do something about it.</s>RUBIN: The great thing, people are focused on this now. As Van mentioned, there's 4.5 million people on probation and parole. We could cut that number down in half and still keep neighborhoods equally safe. So our goal, getting a million people out of the system over the next five years, I think it's really ambitious from one perspective but from another perspective. I think we need to do better than that. And there's such a big opportunity (ph) to see everyone coming together to work on this.</s>VAUSE: Yes. Not locking people up for crimes they will not commit. It actually saves money and makes people safer. You know, it's a good argument you guys have on your side. I wish you both the best of luck. Thanks for being with us.</s>RUBIN: Thanks so much.</s>JONES: Thank you.</s>VAUSE: Well the FBI has closed its investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history without finding a clear motive. 58 people were killed when Stephen Paddock opened fire on a Las Vegas concert October 2017. The