President Obama answers reporters' questions during a joint press conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in the East Room of the White House Friday.(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
WASHINGTON<span style="color: Red;">*</span>— President Obama said Saturday that he'll launch a nationwide criminal justice<span style="color: Red;">*</span>tour next<span style="color: Red;">*</span>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.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>We can’t close them anymore.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>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.V. next Wednesday, where he'll host a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>town hall-style meeting on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the prescription drug abuse and heroin epidemic.The White House says Obama will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>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<span style="color: Red;">*</span>police chiefs and former prisoners. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>Details on those tour stops are expected to be released next week.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
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In his radio address, Obama also threw his support behind bipartisan proposals in Congress to shorten mandatory minimum sentences<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for low-level drug offenses<span style="color: Red;">*</span>and reward convicts<span style="color: Red;">*</span>who participate in prison programs<span style="color: Red;">*</span>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.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>And it’s something I’ll keep fighting for as long as I serve as your president."
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