Here in the United States there are roughly 2 million people incarcerated, making our country the leader in the number of prisoners in the world. The overcrowding problem is driven partly by the so-called "War on Drugs" and the draconian laws that accompany it. Mandatory sentencing guidelines, it has been suggested, particularly when it comes to drug offenses have been applied in such a way that ethnic minorities receive significantly longer sentences than American white convicts. So the U.S. Department of Justice is is beginning to take steps to correct the disparity. See: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2014/June/14-ag-619.html
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