Mahmoud Reza Banki - My 665 days in prison: Full video TED Week at UCLA Anderson – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.are you really innocent until proven guilty or rather are you guilty until proven innocent thank you Thank you Thank you We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal endowed with certain unalienable rights among those life liberty and the pursuit of happiness That quote ran through my mind as I stood in my orange jumper My cellmate in maximum security isolation had been in prison for 15 years I watched them clean the cell repeatedly and meticulously over and over I watched him unso yarn only to reso it back After so many years in prison this is what kept him sane I didn't have much to do or say but to stare at the dimly lit concrete walls or the solid metal door And as the days passed I grew restless in 24-hour isolation Finally one night when no one else could hear me I laid down on my metal bunk Without anyone hearing me quietly I cried Not because of the miserable conditions I was in I cried because I could not be heard That was 2010 I was incarcerated I was in prison for 22 months 11 of the 22 months in high security prisons Eventually I won my case on appeal My name is Mahmud Resza Bank Originally from Iran I am a United States citizen I was wrongfully charged and prosecuted for violating the US imposed Iran sanctions My family sent me my mother's divorce settlement from Iran to the US Family money of this kind is clearly exempt from the sanctions law Yet it took me two years of being in prison almost two years and two years of fighting court cases from inside prison to get some measure of justice Um it nearly cost me my sanity It could have easily cost me my life So after my experience I started asking questions How could all of this happen in the United States in this day and age so I'm going to take you through five themes that I've thought about in the intervening time The first innocence in this justice system Are you really innocent till proven guilty or rather are you guilty until proven innocent i'll never forget that day January 7th 2010 I was living in New York City I was working at McKenzie 6:30 a.m A dozen agents stormed into my apartment slam me against the wall handcuffed me and they take me away No attorney no charges They interrogated me for the rest of that day and I still didn't know why I was there It has to be a mistake At the end of the day they handed me an indictment a list of charges I could not comprehend They handed me the indictment through the metal bars of my cage Strip searched and shackled me again before transferring me to maximum security isolation Despite three attempts I was denied bail as my family and friends scrambled frantically to find an attorney who could represent me On the day I was arrested McKenzie fired me naturally New York Times Associated Press Wall Street Journal and other news outlets ran articles about me pitching the prosecution's version of how I was a criminal At what point did the burden shift from innocent till proven guilty to guilty till proven innocent a prosecutor makes a unilateral decision to go after someone that they have enough evidence to put them away What if they're wrong and my case is not unique According to the Innocence Project up to 5% of inmates are innocent based on DNA testing alone Now what's disturbing about that is DNA testing is irrelevant if not impossible for the vast majority of criminal cases You couldn't have used DNA testing in my case prosecution With the growing power of prosecutors over the last three decades there are consequences The war on crime more law enforcement Has prosecutorial power advanced so much to nudge us closer to a police state what happens when prosecutors go after crime at any and all costs since the 1980s there's been a push to be tougher on crime Consequence an everinccreasing arsenal arsenal of laws In a post 911 world this is ever more amplified Overcriminalization has increased the number of federal laws by 50% over the last 30 years Some of these laws are vague open-ended and rely on technicalities For example a common charge against defendants and one I saw frequently in prison is conspiracy It is loosely defined as an agreement between two people to commit a crime It's a low bar and it's easy to charge someone with conspiracy It is well known that the US incarcerates more people than any other country in the world Any way you cut the data US comes out on top 3% of the US population is either in prison or on supervised release So we should ask how effective are we in fighting crime are our tax dollars really fighting crime or could they lead to prosecution based on political agenda defense If arrested like I was do you have the resources to defend yourself in the federal system prosecutors win 98% of criminal cases 60 to 70% of these are plea agreements It costs hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to defend yourself The typical inmate I saw in prison is a minority with little to no education has had the deck stacked against him his entire life This defendant probably does not even understand the charges against him let alone articulate a defense He could be guilty of several offenses but is being charged with far more Federal criminal defense costs are enough to drive most people in this country into bankruptcy on par with a catastrophic medical condition So ask yourself if this happened to you how will you pay for that prison is it rehabilitation or punishment and of whom and how much punishment is enough i did not see rehab I saw desolate angry men cut off from the world with no hope for the future but the mirage of getting out of prison only to come back into prison In maximum security isolation I heard screams of inmates who needed mental help not the iron fist In lower security prisons I saw families visit inmates I saw inmates surrounded by their children It's all supervised by the guards Did these families commit a crime are the children getting punished what will happen to their future some argue that prison is a deterrent if so why has the prison population risen sixfold since 1990 we certainly don't have six times as many people Do we have six times as much crime are we six times safer prison Not a deterrent Not rehab Not clear who else is getting punished Reintegration Guilty or innocent After doing their time what options do inmates have have we become the unforgiving land of no second chances i'm lucky in a lot of ways I have a PhD from Princeton I have two bachelors from UC Berkeley I worked at McKenzie one of the top firms in the world And now I'm getting my MBA at Anderson Yet I'm denied equitable work opportunities I've applied for over a 100 jobs don't have a single full-time offer to show for it I actually did get a dozen job offers They're all rescended Employers avoid a background that has explanations So it got me thinking if I am struggling despite all the chances I've had despite trying so hard how are the others who did not have opportunities I had fairing off so in their case they made a mistake and paid the price What happens to second chances there has to be a better way Change takes awareness It is easy to ask for draconian laws It is very difficult not to make a mistake to not put an innocent person in prison Change starts with each and every one of you with a shift in your mindset the next time you turn on the news I saw a lot of violence inside highsecurity walls stabbings abrasive personalities harsh conditions inadequate edible food and on and on But what was most difficult for me was being in prison knowing I was wrongfully charged We do so many things so incredibly well in this country Not just this not yet Thank you [Music] Thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause]