From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.

I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU and your host.

Mass incarceration in the United States is an indisputable fact.

We imprison people at a rate unmatched in any other society at any time.

It's even become a bipartisan priority for reform.

Still, most recommendations for reducing the prison population focus on cutting sentences

for minor nonviolent offenses, especially drugs. But the truth is,

more than half of people in state prisons are doing time for violent crimes. As uncomfortable as it

may be, we can't dismantle mass incarceration without changing the way we think about, talk about,

and respond to violence. Joining us today is Danielle Seredd.

She's the founder and director of Common Justice,

a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization

that provides restorative justice services

to victims and perpetrators of violent felonies

as an alternative to incarceration.

She's also the author of Until We Reckon,

Violence, Mass Incarceration, and A Road to Repair.

Danielle, thanks very much for taking the time to speak with us. Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me.

Your book talks about both violence and mass incarceration, but as you point out, they are not the same thing.

They're related, but it's worth disentangling them. You talk about mass incarceration

as a function of the criminal legal system that's filled with all this discretion, as you said,

...