President Obama Visits Newark To Discuss Criminal Justice Reform In America

Welcome to Newark, President Obama.

The president’s impromptu visit – which wasn’t officially announced by the White House until Friday – is part of his recent campaign to raise awareness about national criminal justice reform.

• See related article: President Obama Coming To Rutgers Monday

The presidential visit is scheduled to take place from 2:30 to 5 p.m. While in Newark, Obama will visit Integrity House, a Newark substance abuse treatment facility. Later, he will convene a roundtable discussion at Rutgers University – Newark, Center for Law & Justice.

Afterward, Obama will travel to New York, New York for a DNC event and a DCCC event, Rutgers stated.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka are expected to join Obama during his visit.

According to Rutgers and city administrators, Obama’s statement will be streamed live online here.

PURPOSE OF THE VISIT

In a statement, WhiteHouse.gov explained Obama’s stance for criminal justice reform in America:

“America faces a cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration that traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities. The President believes that we can disrupt the pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails, and make our criminal justice system smarter, fairer, and more effective. That’s why in recent weeks, he has been traveling the country and meeting with Americans who are working to improve the criminal justice system, from law enforcement officials working to lower the crime and incarceration rates, to former prisoners who are earning their second chance. On Monday, the President will travel to Newark to highlight efforts to help Americans who’ve paid their debt to society rejoin their communities.”

Watch the President explain the goals of his visit and the national awareness campaign in the video below.

“This is a historic opportunity to focus attention on issues about which we at RU-N—as an anchor institution in Newark—care very deeply and on which many of our faculty, staff, and students collaborate expansively with partners near and far: mass incarceration and re-entry,” Rutgers-Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor stated. “These are issues of significant importance not just in Greater Newark and New Jersey, but across metropolitan America and around the world.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka released a statement about the President’s visit on Monday:

“Our city has realized that crime in America cannot be defeated by simply arresting our way out of it. Doing so only addresses the results of crime, not the causes. We must prevent it from happening in the first place, and break the deadly cycle of recidivism. That is why we are addressing crime and violence in Newark as a public health issue, seeing that we must inoculate and vaccinate our residents to protect them from it.”

“We recognize that to transform Newark, we have to transform our city’s culture and the lives of our residents, particularly youth and re-entering offenders,” Baraka continued. “We are working with them today to prevent crime tomorrow - and setting the course for the entire nation to follow in breaking the cycle of tragedy and ending the contemporary culture of violence.”

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said that he was pleased that Obama chose to come to Newark to discuss these types of criminal justice issues.

“The national platform allows us to highlight the positive initiatives being undertaken at the County and municipal levels to address topics such as prisoner re-entry and recidivism,” DiVincenzo stated. “It also puts our community in the spotlight and gives us an opportunity to show the world the progress being made in Essex County and Newark.”

TRAFFIC ALERT

The Newark Police Department said that they expect major delays and congestion in the entire downtown area and surrounding streets between the hours of noon to 10 p.m.

“We are asking that motorists allow extra time when traveling in and out of the city or use mass transit if possible,” police stated.

“We are all familiar with the impact that a visit of this magnitude has on logistics—especially traffic patterns—in the vicinity of the event,” Rutgers stated on their website. “Consequently, we cannot emphasize strongly enough the wisdom of using public transportation to commute to and from RU-N on Monday, if at all possible, and accounting for extra time in commuting.”

According to the City of Newark, on-street parking restrictions in the area will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the day of the visit. Vehicles left on streets will have to be towed. Street closures go into effect at noon.

See a map of closed streets and off-limits areas online here.

CRIME IN NEWARK

Obama’s visit underscores a violent crime wave in the city that claimed more than 80 lives this year.

In fact, on Monday - six hours before Obama was due to arrive at Rutgers - a multi-victim shooting was reported on Clinton Avenue, less than two miles from the site of his speech.

In contrast to Obama’s message of criminal justice reform, part of the city’s response has been to hire more police officers. On Thursday – the same day that the White House informed Rutgers administrators about the President’s planned visit – the city swore in 41 new police officers.

However, there have also been long-running efforts in the area – both grassroots and institutional – to conduct the sort of criminal justice reform that Obama is supporting.

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• See related article: Newark Police to Launch Ceasefire Strategy to Combat Gang Violence
• See related article: Integrity House Opens New Residential Recovery Facility in Newark

Photo and video via www.whitehouse.gov