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The plight of mass incarceration is the result of decades of injustice, over-aggressive policing, and a prison system that is long overdue for reform. This week, we have been taking a look at the The VERA Institute's and their national experiment about what it means to reimagine the U.S. prison system.
What would it take to re-work the criminal justice system and what it might look like? For starters, there must be a reduction in the prison population, which is made up of more than 2.3 million Americans. Glenn E. Martin, president and founder of JustLeadershipUSA, wants to cut that number in half by the year 2030. He has already had some success in closing New York City's notorious Rikers Island.
Martin uses his personal experience of being formerly incarcerated to help shape new dialogues and understanding for those both inside and outside the system, and enthusiastically says his goal of cutting the prison population in half is attainable.