Crime and Punishment: Is It Time for Reform?

After decades of “tough on crime” laws, the US has packed its prisons with young, black convicts for non-violent drug crimes. Many conservatives now agree a system that’s not working is not worth the cost, and the call for reform is becoming bipartisan. On Monday, President Obama commuted the sentences of 46 federal prisoners serving long sentences — including life -- for non-violent drug crimes. On Tuesday, he addressed the convention of the NAACP.

Today he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison, the El Reno Correctional Institution in Oklahoma, as part of a campaign to overhaul America’s justice system.