Hello. My name is Alex Busansky, and I'm the executive director of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. On behalf of the Commissioners, I'd like to offer just a few closing remarks.

First of all, I want to sincerely thank all those individuals who testified before the Commission here in Newark. Thank you for candidly describing difficult personal experiences. Thank you for sharing knowledge and insights acquired over years of work in the challenging field of corrections. Thank you for helping us.

I also want to thank those of you who took the time to listen to the testimony provided over the past two days. Being here makes you a witness to this inquiry. But more important, being here gives you a chance to learn with us about the most serious problems of abuse and safety in America's prisons and jails and how we might begin to solve those problems. You've heard more than a few witnesses say that the public doesn't care about what happens to the men and women who work in and who serve time in our jails and prisons. Your presence shows that people in our communities—mothers, fathers, neighbors, brothers, and sisters care about these issues, issues that, as Commission Co-Chair Nicholas Katzenbach said yesterday morning when the hearing began, affect the very fiber of our justice system and of our society.

This is the Commission's second hearing, and we will hold two more hearings before releasing a final report and recommendations. You may not be able to come to those hearings—the next one is in St. Louis in November and the final hearing will be in California in January—but I encourage you to stay involved. Go to our web site. The address is right up there on the screen—www.prisoncommission.org. Register to receive updates about future hearings and our other work, and e-mail or write to us if you have information or insights that you believe would advance our inquiry.

Thank you all again, and this concludes our proceedings.