Digital Commons Network^™

First Step Act Of 2018: How Its Statutory Interpretation Limits Criminal Justice Reform, Adriana E. Morquecho

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Introduction

Today, the United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. Nearly half a million people are incarcerated in federal and state prisons for drug offenses, up from just 41,000 in 1980. Mass incarceration has disproportionately affected communities of color, with the American Civil Liberties Union noting that one out of every three Black boys and one out of every six Latino boys born today can expect to be imprisoned, compared to one out of every seventeen white boys. Notably, the 1980s marked the beginning of the War on Drugs, which led to a spike in …