CNN: Bill Clinton says he made mass incarceration issue worse

By Dan Mercia, Jul. 15, 2015, CNN

(CNN) Bill Clinton said Wednesday that the crime bill he signed into law as President in 1994 worsened the nation's criminal justice system by increasing prison sentences.

"I signed a bill that made the problem worse," Clinton told an audience at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual meeting in Philadelphia. "And I want to admit it."

The omnibus crime bill that Clinton signed included the federal "three strikes" provision, mandating life sentences for criminals convicted of a violent felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug crimes.

Clinton said Wednesday that he signed the law because "we had had a roaring decade of rising crime" when he entered the White House.

More: www.cnn.com