Additionally, they are cited as the main contributor to the growing and excessive prison population known as mass incarceration.
In 2016, according to the Sentencing Project's Fact Sheet on Trends in U.S. Corrections, 2.2 million individuals were in America's prisons or jails.
Those in support of criminal justice reform perceive the issue to be an increase in surveillance and the use of draconian sentencing laws, especially within communities of color.
While some researches claim that racial sentencing disparities are a reflection of differences in criminal activity, crime seriousness, and recidivism between different communities, other researchers believe that racial minorities are punished more harshly than their white counterparts who commit similar crimes.
[6][7] These raise concerns regarding overcriminalization, in which relatively minor offenses are labeled as felonies for purposes of imposing such strictures.