Wed., June 15
Incarceration Nation

Incarceration Nation

In 1970, around 400,000 people were in U.S. jails. Today, close to 2.5 million are behind bars. This means one out of every 100 people is in a federal or state penitentiary. Though the U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, it holds roughly 24 percent of the world’s prison population. With so many in jail, and an estimated 10 million Americans cycling in and out of correctional facilities each year, we look at the incarceration crisis.

This hour—from the county jails to the state penitentiary, we’ll look at everything from prisoner’s rights, to prison reform. We’re joined by Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral and James Byrne, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at UMass Lowell.

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