The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration.

There are 2.2 million people in the nation’s prisons and jails—a 500% increase over the last 40 years. Changes in law and policy, not changes in crime rates, explain most of this increase. The results are overcrowding in prisons and fiscal burdens on states, despite increasing evidence that large-scale incarceration is not an effective means of achieving public safety.

sentencingproject.org

39% of Prisoners Should Not Be in Prison

For the past year, President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on “law and order,” stating at the Republican National Convention that under a Trump presidency, “safety would be restored.” His administration, with Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general, is likely to be unfriendly on criminal justice. However, Trump is doing the right thing. There is strong trans-partisan agreement, among politicians, law enforcement, advocates and researchers that there are simply too many people in prison and sentencing are too long.

Time.com