Recently, Bill Brennan, a candidate for New Jersey governor, turned some heads when he shared his opinion on for-profit prisons, according to Salon. 

“We have a Jim Crow system that carries forward,” said the retired firefighter. “We can connect today’s incarceration nation directly back to slavery. It is exactly the reason they’re doing it. We had lease labor after Reconstruction, and what was that? Put black people in jail, make them work, lease them out to their former owners.”

“And what are we doing today? We have the Corrections Corporation of America making money on our misery. And this has got to stop!”

He went on to promise that he would continue to tell the truth about this country’s practices before stating it was “built upon two things: The genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of African Americans.”

Brennan’s speech was well-received by the audience, to say the least, which applauded him following a promise to hold legislation accountable.

Watch a clip of the speech below: