America's prison problem
America's prison problem;
The US locks up more people than any other country in the world, spending over $80 billion each year to keep some two million prisoners behind bars.
Over the past three decades, tough sentencing laws have contributed to a doubling of the country's prison population, with laws like the 'Three Strikes and You're Out' mandating life sentences for a wide range of crimes.
Why does the US put so many people behind bars and what lies behind California's new push for leniency? But a clear sign that Americans are rethinking crime and punishment is a voter's initiative on California's November ballot called Proposition 36 that seeks to reform the state's three-strikes law.
Some 27 states have three-strikes laws patterned after California's version, which was one of the first to be enacted in the country.
Activists who are campaigning to change the three-strikes law in California are also trying to raise awareness about conditions inside prisons. They are targeting the use of special security units at maximum security prisons
The US locks up more people than any other country in the world, spending over $80 billion each year to keep some two million prisoners behind bars.
Over the past three decades, tough sentencing laws have contributed to a doubling of the country's prison population, with laws like the 'Three Strikes and You're Out' mandating life sentences for a wide range of crimes.
Why does the US put so many people behind bars and what lies behind California's new push for leniency? But a clear sign that Americans are rethinking crime and punishment is a voter's initiative on California's November ballot called Proposition 36 that seeks to reform the state's three-strikes law.
Some 27 states have three-strikes laws patterned after California's version, which was one of the first to be enacted in the country.
Activists who are campaigning to change the three-strikes law in California are also trying to raise awareness about conditions inside prisons. They are targeting the use of special security units at maximum security prisons
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