New book spotlights the wrongs of excessive punishment, offers solutions to ending mass incarceration

The U.S. prison population is surging. Data suggests the nation’s prison population has grown by 500% in the past 30 years. According to the Department of Justice, 1.23 million people were incarcerated in a state or federal prison in 2022.

But if you include those who are being detained in local jails across the U.S. today, it’s estimated that more than 2 million people are incarcerated.

On Tuesday’s edition of “Closer Look,” Lauren-Brooke Eisen, a former prosecutor and the head of the criminal justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice, talked with show host Rose’s Scott about excessive punitive punishment in the U.S. and the new book, “Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration.”