OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama’s push for a fairer justice system is literally sending him to prison.
As part of a weeklong focus on inequities in the criminal justice system, Obama will meet separately Thursday with law enforcement officials and nonviolent drug offenders who are paying their debt to society at thee El Rno Federal Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison for male offenders near Oklahoma City.
He’ll be the first sitting president to see the inside of a federal prison, the White House said.
Obama will also be interviewed at El Reno for an upcoming Vice News documentary on the criminal justice system.
The goal is usually to keep people with criminal histories far away from a president, not to put a president in their midst. But, as much as it may defy logic, the controlled environment of a prison is better than many of the public venues where presidents appear, said Danny Spriggs, a former deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, which provides the president’s security.
Who comes and goes from a prison is strictly limited and everyone’s background is known.
“It’s better that he goes there than out in the general public,” Spriggs said.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said “unique steps” will be taken to protect Obama during the visit. He did not elaborate.
Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said “comprehensive security screening” will be conducted, calling it standard practice.
Spriggs, who said he is familiar with El Reno, said Obama’s prison tour likely will be limited to critical areas, and those areas will be roped off so that access is given only to the warden and immediate staff so they can explain what happens there daily.
“Those hallways will be clear,” Spriggs said.
From shortening the prison sentences of nearly four-dozen non-violent drug offenders to advocating the reduction, or outright elimination, of severe mandatory minimum sentences to visiting a federal prison, Obama has argued forcefully this week for an alternative to the continued lengthy incarceration of people convicted of crimes he said did not fit the punishment.
