By Johanna Kaiser, Communications & Development Associate

The United States incarcerates more of its population than any other country in the world. This addiction to mass incarceration has impacted the lives of too many Americans, many of whom are serving prison sentences for non-violent crimes. In the U.S. prison population has spiked drastically since the start of the “War on Drugs” and there are now more people incarcerated for drug offenses only than the nation’s entire prison population in 1980.

This reliance on incarceration is only exacerbated by the government’s efforts to create new crimes, mandate longer sentences, and turn misdemeanors into felonies. The problems don’t end once an individual is released from prison—because of their convictions many are then disqualified from jobs and government services.

Rhode Island is not immune to the problems of mass incarceration. The population at the ACI has quadrupled since 1974 (46 percent of people at the ACI are there for nonviolent offenses) at a cost of $40,000 per incarcerated person per year.

On this month’s episode of the ACLU of RI’s “Rights of a Free People,” RI Public Defender Mary McElroy, and Open Doors policy researcher Nick Horton discuss the roots of Rhode Island’s mass incarceration problems, the role of race and policing, how mass incarceration affects communities, and what we can do to address these problems. 

Showtimes:

Channel 13 (Channel 32 on Verizon FIOS)
  

Tuesdays 10:00 pm

Fridays 3:30 pm

Channel 18 (Channel 38 on Verizon FIOS), Providence and N. Providence

Wednesdays 9:00 pm