Mass Incarceration is the problem. It stems from greed and power, and those are difficult obstacles to remove.  When large corporations that serve the prisons, or own the prisons, were given the green light to "Go Public" ( to sell their shares on Wall St. in the mid 1980's )  that is when Mass Incarceration really took off.  From the view point of the companies it was called "TOUGH ON CRIME'  or "WAR ON DRUGS"   These corporate giants give millions of dollars to elected officials campaigns, at every level of government. in exchange for them running on a "Tough on Crime" platform. One example of how a congress person can be Tough of Crime = (and there are hundreds) :  A crime that had a 5 year maximum penalty in the 1980's has been amended a number of times by Tough on Crime politicians and now carries a maximum penalty (same crime) of 30 years.  

    I'll use the U.S. congress as an example, but the same thing happens at the state level.  Since the corporations have gone public, Congress has created over Two Thousand five Hundred NEW CRIMES. Something that may have been naughty, and your parents were called will now send a youth to one of the 1500 Juvenile detention facilities in the U.S. Where hope is lost; where abuse and rape prevail and where children are taught to be institutionalized criminals.  

      So in 1990 when Zeph Pitt ( the Poster Child for Mass Incarceration) was 14 walking home from school with a buddy and made that split second stupid wrong, unrighteous decision to hop in the Mercedes, parked at the convenience store, motor running, and go for what in my youth was a Joy Ride.... He was convicted for Grand Theft Auto, a felony and sentenced to  3 months at the brand new Juvenile detention center with 660 beds to fill.  Oh, another thing; these companies whose responsibility is to profits for their shareholders; their contracts with the prisons have LOCK-UP QUOTAS.. Are you seeing the conflict of interest here. The Judge at my son's bond hearing in 2015, is a share holder of the facility he was housed in at that time, and guess what,  BOND DENIED. Got to keep the beds full. 

  This petition will not end Mass Incarceration, but it could end it for The Poster Child. Zeph Pitt has written a new G.E.D. program that inmates can relate to and it contains cognitive behavioral therapy, S.T.E.M. lesson and entrepreneurial skills to help lower recidivism rates. The Poster Child WILL be a force for reform. Please help us FREE ZEPH PITT! Thank you.