Submitted by Stephen Dunne on October 5, 2015 - 4:08pm
During the most recent Republican presidential debate, the candidates called mass incarceration a major problem. With 2.2 million Americans now incarcerated — triple the number locked up in the 1980s when President Ronald Reagan escalated a “war on drugs” and legislators vied with one another to appear toughest — the United States holds the dubious distinction of being the world’s largest jailer.