More than 50 years have passed since the U.S. prison population surged, and advocacy organizers nationwide have since united to challenge mass incarceration. The U.S. will need continued leadership from those most affected by the harms of relying on incarceration despite the consequences. 

Today, almost 2 million people — a disproportionate number of whom are Black — are incarcerated in our nation’s prisons and jails instead of living in their communities. The prison population has ballooned since the early 1970s underscoring the urgency to shift toward community-based public safety that is not defined by violent arrests, lengthy prison terms and collateral consequences that destroy families and communities.

See: https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/4491162-to-end-mass-incarceration-reform-our-excessively-punitive-systems/