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b'As most observers are well aware by now, the US incarcerates a much higher proportion of its population than any other nation. In Jeffrey Bellin\\u2019s book, \\u201cMass Incarceration Nation,\\u201d he conceives of the system as having two distinct levels.\\n\\nThe criminal justice system where the public seeks \\u201cjustice\\u201d in response to serious crimes like murder and rape. And the criminal legal system, \\u201cwhere the government enforces a variety of laws ostensibly to achieve certain policy goals, like reducing drug abuse or gun violence or illegal immigration.\\u201d\\n\\nBellin argues that while the increase in those serious crimes in the 1970s and 1980s did lead to a tough on crime crack down, \\u201cIncreasing the penalties for crime in this country didn\\u2019t end crime.\\u201d\\n\\nInstead, it ebbs and lfows as it has.\\n\\nBut what has changes is that our \\u201ctough on crime\\u201d policies have now filled prisons with a \\u201csmall percentage but growing number of unlucky \\u2018criminals\\u2019\\u201d and once there, \\u201ctougher laws and tougher officials made sure they stayed locked up.\\u201d'