Many states can no longer afford to support public education, public benefits, public services without doing something about the exorbitant costs that mass incarceration have created.

My parents, who grew up in terror and dealt with segregation and humiliation, nonetheless taught us to be hopeful and open and loving and not hateful toward anyone.

Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done.

I don't think there's been a time in American history with more innocent people in prison.

In many ways, we've been taught to think that the real question is, do people deserve to die for the crimes they've committed? And that's a very sensible question. But there's another way of thinking about where we are in our identity. The other way of thinking about it is not, do people deserve to die for the crimes they commit, but do we deserve to kill?

We live in a country that talks about being the home of the brave and the land of the free, and we have the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Are you the sum total of your worst acts?