America tries to shrink its prison state

Why cutting federal drug sentences is a big deal, in 2 charts

And why it's so much simpler to reduce the prison population at the federal level than for states.

This tool lets you try to end mass incarceration. You'll have to take on violent offenders

The good news is that there's a way to do it.

The 2 simple facts that explain why the US prison population exploded

And two big misconceptions that didn't drive the growth

This change to sentencing could widen racial gaps

Why a University of Michigan professor opposes the new approach.

Whites like prison more when they know it's racist

A new study has important implications for the debate over criminal-justice reform.

Watch John Oliver on America's prison problem

The Last Week Tonight host covers solitary confinement, prison privatization, racial disparate sentencing, and more.

46,000 prisoners could get out sooner. Here's how.

Explaining the US Sentencing Commission's vote to let 46,000 federal prisoners apply for new, shorter sentences

46K US prisoners can apply for earlier release

People in federal prison for drug crimes can be released starting in November 2015

Watch the number of US prisons skyrocket

America's mass incarceration, in one map.

Even liberal states imprison a lot of people

Even when broken into states, the US dwarfs other countries' incarceration rates.

The DOJ's proposal would cut retroactivity in half

Putting numbers to the "limited retroactivity" the DOJ wants to implement for drug sentences.

DOJ comes around on sentencing retroactivity

With serious caveats.

A simple way for US prisons to save $2.4 billion

Applying new rules for prison sentences to existing prisoners would save billions of dollars — and probably wouldn't result in higher crime

Judges are getting more independent on sentencing

America’s incarceration rate is 3.5 times Mexico’s

The numbers behind America's prison state are horrifying.

Congress can cut drug sentences in zero easy steps

Shorter drug sentences will go into in effect on November 1st, unless Congress takes action to stop it. Luckily, "taking action" isn't something Congress does well.

Obama's plan to cut prison sentences, explained

The Obama administration has been extremely stingy in granting pardons or relief to prisoners. That's about to change entirely.

A typo got Ceasar Cantu 3.5 extra years in prison

A typo caused Ceasar Cantu to get a longer prison sentence than he deserved. No one caught it for years. Then Obama had to fix it. What happened?