Our criminal justice system is broken. We have 25% of the world's incarcerated population and spend nearly $50,000 PER adult we lock up in a state prison. Nearly half of the inmates in state prisons are locked up for nonviolent offenses. Every dollar we spend on prisons and jails is a dollar that is not spent on other priorities such as education, social services, or real public safety solutions.
Want to put it in perspective? The ACLU of Northern California rolled out a really effective app called Think Outside the Box (www.thinkoutsidetheboxca.org) that shows just how costly our criminal justice priorities are and where those dollars could be better spent.
