Criminal Justice

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any country in the world — approximately 2 million people are behind bars on any given day, and more than 600,000 are released from state and federal prisons every year. The mass incarceration era was built through mandatory minimum sentencing laws, drug war prosecutions, and the three-strikes policies of the 1980s and 1990s. The First Step Act of 2018, signed by President Trump, was the first significant federal criminal justice reform in decades — reducing some mandatory minimums, expanding good-time credits, and funding reentry programs. But more sweeping reforms have stalled in Congress. Federal sentencing disparities — particularly between crack cocaine (associated with Black communities) and powder cocaine (associated with white communities) — have been a long-standing civil rights concern. The recidivism rate is approximately two-thirds within three years of release, reflecting inadequate support for reentry. Juvenile justice, community supervision, and alternatives to incarceration for drug and mental health offenses are all areas where research suggests significant improvement is possible. Internationally, the U.S. approach differs sharply from Norway's rehabilitation-focused model, which achieves a recidivism rate below 20 percent.