NACDL - Setting the Stage: 50 Years of Mass Incarceration in America

Setting the Stage: 50 Years of Mass Incarceration in America – Where Do We Go From Here?

2023 marks the 50^th year since the U.S. prison population began its extraordinary surge. As advocates mark 50 years of mass incarceration, what is needed to meaningfully decarcerate our nation’s jails and prisons?

22^nd Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference
August 16-17, 2023 | Held Virtually

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To date over five million people are under supervision by the criminal legal system, and nearly two million people, disproportionately Black, are currently incarcerated in our nation’s jails and prisons. This represents a 500 percent increase since 1973.

How did we get here? Many of the conditions that drove this exponential rise in incarceration persists, including the failed War on Drugs, racially biased policing, disproportionate pretrial practices and sentencing outcomes and the expanded use of lengthy sentences.

Speakers

Khalil Cumberbatch, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Council on Criminal Justice
Premal Dharia, Executive Director, Institute to End Mass Incarceration
Cynthia Roseberry, Acting Director, ACLU Justice Division, American Civil Liberties Union
Moderated by: Nicole Porter, Senior Director of Advocacy, The Sentencing Project

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