By gfpeck

Last week’s New York Times featured a poignant article related to our work with the incarcerated.

“For Lesser Crimes, Thinking Life Behind Bars” detailed the mass incarceration mind-set present in our U.S. justice & corrections systems despite waning violence and crime rates since the 1990s:

Three decades of stricter drug laws, reduced parole and rigid sentencing rules have lengthened prison terms and more than tripled the percentage of Americans behind bars. The United States has the highest reported rate of incarceration of any country: about one in 100 adults, a total of nearly 2.3 million people in prison or jail.

This article provides a strong primer on some of the most challenging issues facing justice-involved persons, including mandatory sentencing laws, antiquated drug laws, the impacts upon children and families left without parents, and prison population rates compared to other industrialized nations.  Read on …