PRISON FELLOWSHIP: overcrowding

For all the contentious, divisive issues that have recently dominated national headlines, there is one policy issue that continues to receive broad, bipartisan support—the need for meaningful sentencing and corrections reforms in the United States.  And with new efforts by President Obama to highlight the need for changes, the time may be right for a significant transformation in how we view prisons and the men and women inside them.

The total number of inmates in state and federal prisons in the United States decreased by 1.7 percent in 2012, according to a new report issued by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.  It is the third consecutive annual decrease, following three decades of growth.