Obama first sitting President to visit a prison

[Mischief]

On Thursday, the president will visit with inmates and officials at the Federal Correctional Institution El Reno near Oklahoma City, the White House announced Friday, and will be interviewed for the HBO newsmagazine series “Vice” on the issue.

The president highlighted criminal justice reform as a priority in his State of the Union speech in January, connecting it to high-profile clashes between local law enforcement and minority communities.

“Folks go in at great expense to the state, many times trained to become more hardened criminals while in prison, [and] come out and are basically unemployable,” he said.

Criminal justice reform has emerged as an issue with potential for bipartisan action on Capitol Hill.

Obama to become first sitting president to visit a prison - LA Times

 

[Amy SF]

...and I'm willing to bet Republicans will make a lot of nasty jokes about how he belongs in prison and that they should keep him there and not let him go back to Washington. Count on it.

 

[Mischief]

...and I'm willing to bet Republicans will make a lot of nasty jokes about how he belongs in prison and that they should keep him there and not let him go back to Washington. Count on it.

I had the same thought.

 

[Andy_T]

What about Nixon?
I thought he had very good chances for an extended prison visit during his period in office...

 

[Amy SF]

What about Nixon?
I thought he had very good chances for an extended prison visit during his period in office...

Well, he might have, but his successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him. I remember my parents saying they thought Nixon picked him precisely because he knew Ford would pardon him, or they cut a deal, or something.

 

[ledboots]

Well, he might have, but his successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him. I remember my parents saying they thought Nixon picked him precisely because he knew Ford would pardon him, or they cut a deal, or something.

Ford pardoned Nixon because having an ex-president in prison would hurt the presidency even more than the whole Watergate coverup fiasco had already. The nation was in turmoil: old v young, black v white, conservative v liberal. A presidential criminal trial would have been a circus.


http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-pardons-nixon
"Decades later, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation presented its 2001 Profile in Courage Award to Gerald Ford for his 1974 pardon of Nixon. In pardoning Nixon, said the foundation, Ford placed his love of country ahead of his own political future and brought needed closure to the divisive Watergate affair."