To Mobilize Criminal Justice Reform, Appeal to the Public's Self-Interest [PSMag.com]

Prison populations in the United States have been falling for nearly a decade, but the country still incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other developed nation. Decades of harsh public opinion and prison-happy politicians ratcheted up sentencesbeginning in the 1970s, leading to unsustainable growth in prison and jail populations. But falling crime rates, tight budgets, and changes to state and federal sentencing laws reversed the trend in 2009, and prison populations have fallen every year since—though at a much slower rate than they initially began to climb.

[For more of this story, written by Kate Wheeling, go to https://psmag.com/social-justi...yourself-for-justice]