The US incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, keeping nearly 2.3 million locked in federal and state prisons and jails.

Crime rates have little to do with the rise of the prison population in the last four decades in the US.

What happened between 1980 and now for the prison population to rise by 500%? Is it to keep the general public safe?

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “Even when women have minimal or no involvement in the drug trade, they are increasingly caught in the ever-widening net cast by current drug laws, through provisions of the criminal law such as those involving conspiracy, accomplice liability, and constructive possession that expand criminal liability to reach partners, relatives, and bystanders.”

Dive into these detailed incarceration statistics to get a big picture view of why the land of the free keeps so many people behind bars.

It’s time to take action.

Be the change!