USA : How to cut the prison population, save $18 billion a year and keep America safe

The U.S. is home to 5 percent of the world population but nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Roughly 2.2 million Americans are behind bars, giving us the highest incarceration rate of nearly any country in the world. But the Brennan Center’s new report is noteworthy for quantifying exactly how many of our prisoners the authors believe shouldn’t be behind bars. Approximately 364,000 people are serving prison time for low-level offenses, like drug possession and minor burglaries. In recent years, more and more research has shown that prison terms are not particularly effective at deterring these crimes or rehabilitating the people who commit them. For these individuals, time behind bars may even increase their likelihood to commit more crime in the future. Read full article