Good afternoon --

I'm a reporter who covered the police beat in Baltimore. Today, I make television shows. And last Friday, my phone rang. Someone on the other end told me that the President of the United States wants to have a conversation about criminal justice policy in America.

In his effort to try to reconsider some of the sentencing excesses and the levels of incarceration that have become so problematic in America, the President wanted to discuss these issues with me -- particularly because a lot of them were rooted in a television show that we did several years ago called "The Wire." In that show, we were trying to explore what the drug war has become in America and what it was costing us as a society.

So I went to Washington earlier this week and sat down with the President. We shared our experiences, our perspectives on the drug war, and the changes we hope to see.

See what the President had to say:

Secretly, in my heart of hearts, I don’t want to be in the entertainment industry. Having been a reporter, everything after that tends to feel less rooted to reality. So the President’s call was not only astonishing, but seemed to be an incredible opportunity.

It was a candid conversation. And ultimately, a hopeful one.

I hope you'll watch and share this with everyone who cares about improving our criminal justice system.

Because I can tell you that the President certainly does.

Thanks,

David Simon

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