The United States currently has 2.4 million people behind bars. That’s ¼ of the world’s penal population. That’s more than any country, including China which has four times our population and whom we accuse of human-rights violations.
Most of these 2.4 million people are non-violent criminals from the lower socio-economic class and are serving time because of drug possession; the “three-strike” law that hands out long sentences if a person has three convictions even if they are for shoplifting; and other draconian sentencing for relatively minor crimes. Those with money can afford lawyers and most of the time, do not serve time. The costs to our society in keeping these people behind bars are enormous, just in human terms of lives disrupted, and lost productivity. No estimates have been