Hey everyone, we've been thinking a lot about what history is taught in school and how it's taught in school.

Yeah, it's one of the reasons this show exists. We wanted to fill in the gaps of what we learned in history class,

and reframe some of the history we did learn.

So a few months ago, we started asking teachers for some of their favorite

through-line episodes that do just that and that they'd like their students to hear before returning

Our hope was that through-line was abuse and we heard from many teachers who said that it was.

This week, hi my name is Stephanie Kuzler, I'm a teacher in California. My name is Jenna, I teach

APU as history and I was just calling to thank you after-line for creating such an amazing content

and I listen to your podcast all the time. I still have to tell you that I've used so many of your

podcasts with my students. My favorite for learning purposes and especially right now, math

incarceration. Specifically, the one that comes to mind right now, here when I'm math incarceration,

it was incredible. I'm sure it was the reading of trust mercy that I used so many more. Thank you.

The U.S. locks more people up than any other country. There's been a lot of talk about

mass incarceration in the last few years. We incarcerate a greater percentage of our population

than any country on earth. Even though over the last 20 years, the crime rate has actually dropped.

The American criminal justice system gives local prosecutors enormous discretion and historically,

they've used it in service of a harsh law and order agenda. The fact is a long history in this

country of dealing with problems in the African-American community through criminal justice system.

You're listening to Thru Line from NPR. Where we go back in time. To understand the present.

Hey, I'm Ramteen Arableui. I'm Ramda Abdelfatta. And on this episode, the origins of mass incarceration

in America. The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world.

And that includes China, which has a population of more than 1.3 billion.

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