>>> the ideas interest me because they are proven to work and at their root, they are about self-governance. i think they are proven.

>> david kennedy 's idea are restorative and are community -based. we have a criminal justice system where the focus is the government's power. it's not community building . he busts that up and makes us focus on the community . that's restorative. that's what we're about.

>> there you go. one of the leading advocates of an organization called right on crime, tim dunn . and mark meckler, both of them endorsing the ideas of our next guests. hot spotting advocate david kennedy . this segment aimed at one idea. the war on drugs is a monumental failure by any measure. drug consumption, cost, this failed experiment has really ? turned into a breeding ground for a prison system that is based on racism. an african-american is ten times more likely to be incarcerated for the exact same drug crimes as a white american . in order to keep this drug war alive, we are paying an astronomical price. the cost of incarcerating 150,000 prisoners is $3.3 billion in 2010 . and yet prescription drugs , pills, marijuana, are more prevalent in our society than ever. it is time to start treating drugs for what they are. a massive public health crisis and funnel those wasted billions of dollars toward real reeducation and using people in the human capital that we are destroying in our society to harness and release it in our goal to create 30 million jobs. joining us, the man both dunn and meckler say is right, david kennedy . his book "don't shoot", demonstrates the power of understanding how to solve a problem. also joining us is ben chavis , chairman of the summit action network. and with us in new york, russell simmons , the chairman of rush communications and the founder of globalgrind.com. i'm going to start with you, david . you have a lot of endorsements around you that are emerging around your ? methodology. give us some insight into exactly what it is you have been doing so that we can better understand it.

>> so i work in some of the most desperate neighborhoods in the country. they are largely very historically damaged african-american neighborhoods. they have all kinds of issues and problems we need to pay attention to. there are a couple of things that are not part of the usual historical fabric that we've been dealing with that are doing tremendous damage. these are neighborhoods where if you are a young black man, one in 200 of you in these communities are killed by gunshot every year. they are neighborhoods that are driving the core american reality, which is that if you're a black man, one in three of you will go to prison.

>> but tell us what you're doing.

>> it's not okay. neither one of these things is all right. and what turns out to be true is that the community doesn't think it's okay. the guys on the corner don't think it's okay. law enforcement doesn't think it's okay. hardly anybody is driving the problem. it's 10% of the 5% of the young men on the streets at the core of this violence. and those parties, the community , law enforcement , community service , they are getting together and sitting down face to face with the 10% of the 5%. they are saying we know who you are and what you're doing. ? we all care about you. none of us want you dead or locked up. there's a couple things you're doing that has to stop. we want to engage with you so we don't have to bury you or lock you up.

>> what have your results been?

>> you get the absolute elimination of street drug markets. you get 60% reductions in homicides in these neighborhoods. you get dramatic improvements in the lives of these guys that everybody is giving up on. it's pretty remarkable.

>> russell , when you hear david and see the endorsement from a conservative west texas oil man, you see the endorsement from one of the cofounders of the tea party patriots, your thoughts about these ideas and the moment we find ourselves in where we can create, obviously, a potentially massive and very diverse coalition around a simple idea.

>> well, no question that these kinds of ideas are useful. they are critical. we have to change the way we think. my experience with the drug laws growing up, all my friends died and went to jail. and i saw the damage that drugs did. but it wasn't the drugs so much, it was the war on drugs . a lot of my friends were diseased. some grew out of it. some were in prison. most grew out of it. some were in prison. the ones who went to prison diseased came home criminal. and the cycle of these people going in and out created criminal culture in the streets. and it damaged whole ? communities. so we took diseased people and we put them back into communities as criminals and changed community 's fabrics. that's an ongoing problem. that cycle of in and out of jail. we found that it's not helpful in terms of eliminating crime. in fact, it's the core of crime. the creation of crimes. that's the problem we're discussing. so to have a solution like this that's researched and ready to go and to ignore it, there's only one reason for that. it's because the prison industrial complex makes so much money incarcerating these people. so as long as they pay politicians to keep the laws on the books, i have had the experience of fighting these laws, i have had the experience of going to work with people who cared and finding out that even if the politicians cared, the ones who were in debt to the complex never voted or raise d their voice to change the laws. we know this is a failed drug war . we know people are going to jail and not threatening to our community . we know when they come home, they will be a threat to our community . we have to make a change.

>> listen. there's a remarkable amount of logic. that's an increasingly broad basis of support. you have a man sitting next to you who lived his life dealing with these problems. we see what the barriers are. all of these aspects, ben. what is it that we have to do next in order to get not only david more resources, but to truly elevate the necessary pressures to ? eliminate the strangle hold the index has taken on our country?

>> david is definitely on the right track. we built a grass roots movement to change the rockefeller drug laws . we here at the lbj library . lbj signed the civil rights act , the voting act. that's what occupy the dream is emerge i emerging. we're going to challenge these issues. take the research and the study that david has done. but you have to involve the participants and people in the community . we're changing consciousness. your earlier segment with officer perez on the energy and the second segment with politicians. we have to get money out of politics. we have to have the institutional amendment. we have to deal with providing the 30 million jobs. we have to involve more than 30 million people to create the 30 million jobs. we're on board. we have to work hard. we have to deal with green energy . at the end of the day , we're going to meet tonight here in texas, we're going to turn this situation around from the bottom up.

>> and if you were to look at -- what is it that you need the most right now, david , to do more of this?

>> i need him.

>> i think you got him.

>> let me interject. what ben is saying is important about the black church . it's the union between the black church and the unions and the black church and the occupy wall street people going together for occupy the dream. this is ? a historical thing in that there's a collaboration that's going to make the difference. and again, it's not only the black church and the unions, it's the tea parties. it's the people on the right. this is not a conservative or a liberal or progressive issue. this is an american issue. we're talking about people who spend $15 million to get billions out of our system. $3.3 billion in texas alone. for the politicians, they can't help it. the money out of washington is so critical. they are paying to keep those laws on the books. it's a small amount they are paying. but the return on their investment is too large to turn our head on and change this.

>> and to that end, when you look at tim dunn , who is a west texas oil man, a conservative in this country, you look at mark meckler, who is a conservative in this country. you don't need a greater understanding that this is not a left or right issue than to understand the intensity of your support and the intensity of russell 's support and the intensity of my support and all these individuals. david , you get the last word. the world is with you if only the government understood that.

>> no good american wants to live in anare lo locking up an entire people. it's not right. and the more people see that, the more that common sense emerges. it's just wrong.

>> i look forward to dinner tonight. not only with you two, but with tim dunn and mark meckler. thank you, guys, for showing the world what is happening. i look forward to ? continuing this conversation when we have more time. russell , thank you so much. not only for your commentary, but your leadership and really your modelling of the future for so many of us as we have to deal with so many of these problems. russell simmons , david kennedy , ben chavis .