The United States contains 25% of the world's prison population, but only makes up about 5% of the total population (). The inflated amount of prisoners has led to overcrowding of prisons, high government expenditures, and other related issues. However, many individuals and organizations have recognized this issue and have pushed for reforms in the criminal justice system. These reforms have translated into the 8.4% decrease in prison population in the United States from 2010-2015(). So, there's progress. The United States still harbors a concerning proportion of the world's incarcerated population, though.
What types of reforms can and should be implemented in the United States and other countries to address the inflated prison populations?
What criminal justice reforms have effectively reduced the prison population in other countries?
Decreasing usage of for-profit prison companies and improving prison inmate education may help to reduce prison populations.
This article provides an interesting comparison with Japan's prison system, which has significantly lower incarceration rates than the US: .
Unfortunately, I can't access the article, but that is a really interesting point! For-profit ventures haven't been great at maintaining acceptable living/working conditions unless strictly regulated. I wonder what the impact of how and why individuals are incarcerated has on prison populations...
The root of US's prison population is the War on Drugs. Since the War on Drugs started in the early 1970s, the US prison population has signifantly increased. In 1974, the US prison population was 218,466 and in 2014 the population was 1,508,636. This is an almost 600% increase over a period of time in which the US population only rose 150%. The War on Drugs has lead to such an increase in prisoners that a whole new industry has been created, the for-profit prison industry. This industry has one goal, maximising profits, so they want prisoners to be locked up for as long as possible with terrible conditions.
To solve this crisis we need to end the War on Drugs. We can do this by reducing or abolishing mandatory minimiums, and legalizing a few recreational drugs. This will reduce the prison population, destroy the for-profit prison industry, and improve conditions for incarcerated Americans.