Release anyone that is serving time for drug possession.
Release anyone that is serving time for petty theft and mandate community service instead.(note: I hate theives).
Release anyone that is serving time for DUI or DWI and mandate counseling and drug therapy.
Stop building for profit prisons.

End the "drug war" which has focused its sight on men of color. Release all non violent cannabis related "crimes". End the practice of privately owned prisons for profit. End capitol punishment & study the brains of these miscreants.

If I became benevolent dictator of my country I would immediately release those who were not a threat to society or individuals. Fine defaulters, tax dodgers, dope smokers and such would be freed immediately, the tax dodgers and defaulters would have to pay their debts, but why cost the public more money. Rule of thumb, 80% reduction in people in prison.
Then look at dangers serial killers, child killers etc. my guess 20% f the remaining population, exterminate them, just like a dangerous dog, the little purple injection. Then think about what to do with the remaining 16%.

Get rid of privatization. It's ridiculous and abusive.

I think For Profit prisons are an abomination! There is great incentive to keep the prisons full, it is crazy.

I say we need more prisons because there are a lot of criminals out there roaming free.

Sessions owns stock in for profit prisons and has loosened forfeiture rules for law enforcement. Basically, this make all these monsters slave taking pirates.

We need to shutdown For Profit Prison systems ..thats one of the many reason our prison populations have exploded..greed!

Don't forget that this is institutionalized slavery. These people are imprisoned then coerced to work for incredibly low wages. You want to know why we have this problem? Follow the money.

Take the profit out of it. Companies get paid by how many inmates they house. I have read many articles on this. It's pretty sickening. And guess who gets thrown in jail the most for minor non-violent drug offenses?

Prisons profit.
Drug companies have less competition, thus more profit. (re drug offenses)
Court systems rake in fees.
Civil forfeiture feeds law enforcement's coffers.
Businesses get barely-paid, as-good-as-slave labor, thus more profit.

And we're supposed to give up this perpetual-motion goldmine in favor of not "ruining lives"? Psshh. Sounds Unamerican.

A good starting point would be retroactive decriminalization of all nonviolent drug offenses.

The cost to society of locking up these people is enormous, and not just in terms of state and federal budgets. It costs over $30,000 to house an inmate in prison, on average. We could send them all to college for that price, with money left over. But the societal cost is far higher. Families are broken up. Lives are destroyed. Those offenders often become ineligible for any social assistance that might help them improve their lives or that of their families. Conservatives make a big deal out of fatherless homes among African-Americans, but when you’re locking up hundreds of thousands of them for minor offenses, you’re creating the problem you complain about.

There are different models for incarceration — retribution, rehabilitation, threat reduction. Retribution serves no purpose at all. Rehabilitation is far more successful outside of a prison. The only acceptable reason to imprison someone is to protect society, to keep people who are truly a great danger to others segregation so they can’t victimize anyone else. It should be limited primarily to violent offenders.