--- title: Bill Clinton: He Says His Policies Put Too Many People in Prison description: Bill Clinton acknowledged his administration's role in the overcrowding of U.S. prisons with the passing of the "three-strikes" provision. canonical: https://time.com/3850046/bill-clinton-three-strikes-prison/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-07T11:29:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:00:33.531Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bill Clinton Says His Policies Put Too Many People in Prison og:description: Now Hillary is calling for criminal justice reform on the campaign trail og:url: https://time.com/3850046/bill-clinton-three-strikes-prison/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4ae54845bee4e4c/6987eeb70b72e3bc306e1ed0/472309504.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MOROCCO-CONFERENCE-ECONOMY-DEVELOPMENT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill Clinton Says His Policies Put Too Many People in Prison twitter:description: Now Hillary is calling for criminal justice reform on the campaign trail twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4ae54845bee4e4c/6987eeb70b72e3bc306e1ed0/472309504.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill Clinton Says His Policies Put Too Many People in Prison  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 7, 2015 11:29 AM UTC  Former U.S. president and founding chairman of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Bill Clinton, gestures during the opening session of the CGI Middle East and Africa in Marrakesh, Morocco on May 6, 2015 Former U.S. president and founding chairman of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Bill Clinton, gestures during the opening session of the CGI Middle East and Africa in Marrakesh, Morocco on May 6, 2015Fadel Senna—/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 7, 2015 11:29 AM UTC Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday conceded his administration’s role in the overcrowding of U.S. prisons. In an [interview with CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/06/politics/bill-clinton-crime-prisons-hillary-clinton/index.html), Clinton said the “three-strikes” policy passed while he was in office contributed to over-incarceration. The provision, part of a larger 1994 crime bill, mandates life sentences for criminals convicted of a violent felony after two or more prior convictions. “The problem is the way it was written and implemented is we cast too wide a net and we had too many people in prison,” Clinton said. “And we wound up… putting so many people in prison that there wasn’t enough money left to educate them, train them for new jobs and increase the chances when they came out so they could live productive lives.” Clinton’s wife Hillary Clinton, who is now running for President, supported the provision in 1994 but has since [changed her tune](http://time.com/3839892/hillary-clinton-calls-for-an-end-to-mass-incarceration/), calling for criminal justice reform and an end to “mass incarceration.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3850046/bill-clinton-three-strikes-prison/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3850046/bill-clinton-three-strikes-prison/"},"headline":"Bill Clinton Says His Policies Put Too Many People in Prison","datePublished":"2015-05-07T11:29:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:00:33.531Z","description":"He laments fallout from the \"three strikes\" provision","url":"https://time.com/3850046/bill-clinton-three-strikes-prison/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","Prison","Bill Clinton"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4ae54845bee4e4c/6987eeb70b72e3bc306e1ed0/472309504.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb4ae54845bee4e4c/6987eeb70b72e3bc306e1ed0/472309504.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MOROCCO-CONFERENCE-ECONOMY-DEVELOPMENT","caption":"MOROCCO-CONFERENCE-ECONOMY-DEVELOPMENT","creditText":"Fadel Senna—/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3850046/bill-clinton-three-strikes-prison/","name":"Bill Clinton Says His Policies Put Too Many People in Prison"}}]}] ```