“Too many people are behind bars that don’t belong there,” declared a group demanding that America do away with its throw-'em-all-in-jail mass imprisonment policies.
For nearly 50 years, politicians and prosecutors have pushed a no-mercy, “tough on crime” mantra. Instead of making us safer, it’s proven to be grossly unjust, exorbitantly expensive, counterproductive, and destructive to families and whole communities.
“We need less incarceration, not more,” the reform group recently proclaimed.
Of course, you'd expect the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to urge a humane and just approach to crime and punishment—only, this isn’t the ACLU. It’s an organization called Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration, and it’s made up of 130 big-city police chiefs, sheriffs, and prosecutors from coast to coast.
