We live in the country with the largest "official" prison population (China's might be higher, but they don't say so). We have, by far, the highest incarceration rate of any developed country. Overall, 25% of all prisoners IN THE WORLD are in prison in America.

A major problem is that we incarcerate so many non-violent offenders. 57% of the prison population was convicted for a non-violent offense (most of the time related to the War on Drugs). In fact, over the past quarter century, violent crime has decreased but the prison population has quadrupled!

Another disturbing trend is the increasing privatization of prisons. With so many government contractors and other conservative plots to make huge corporations richer, this isn't surprising. However, unlike the damages caused by some of those other schemes, privatization of the prison system means the creation of a market for prisons and, thus, prisoners. Not only does this disincentivize crime reduction, but it incentivizes sending more of our people to prison, regardless of the social consequences.

Furthermore, the prison system is undeniably racist. With huge populations of men of color in prison, our society is showing its willingness to exercise the only exception allowable for slavery under the 13th amendment.

Finally, the system itself is designed to punish whereas its true purpose should be to rehabilitate, in my opinion. Why else would we still allow capital punishment? Why else would we send non-violent drug addicts to the violent environment of prisons and not to rehab?

However, the solution to the problems above (and they are by no means exhaustive- terrible prison conditions, including rape, ridiculous mandatory sentencing laws, massive prison overpopulation, and despicable disenfranchisement laws are just a few more to mention) lies not in reforming prisons. Prisons are the problem. Prisons have not been around forever, not even for the lifetime of this country. There was a time when there were no prisoners. In order to save our society, we must return to a world without prisoners.

This does not mean that those who commit offenses against others would roam free able to commit them again. On the contrary, reform and prevention would be dealt with in the local community through mediation and strategies to keep people from harming each other. Furthermore, by reducing poverty and inequality, we can drastically reduce most crime, as can be seen by the low prison populations in more equal societies.

There is a reason countries like those in Scandinavia have incarceration rates a tenth of ours. You can argue it is because we give our people more freedom and so they commit more crime. But locking up 1 out of every 136 of your citizens is not what I call freedom.