POLICE CHIEFS, SHERIFFS AND PROSECUTORS JOIN PRISON REFORM MOVEMENT

In an abrupt change in philosophy, more than 130 top law enforcement officials including those from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and others now support a roll back of tough laws and rigid judicial practices that have built a criminal justice system in the U.S. with the highest incarceration rate in the world. It also costs taxpayers $80 billion a year to maintain.

More than 1/3 of prison and jail inmates are incarcerated for low-level crimes like drug possession and shoplifting and need tre...