All Points: America’s bulging prison population

In an April 29 speech at Columbia University, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton cited often-used statistics. “It’s a stark fact that the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population,” she said, “yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population.”

Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul noted the same thing earlier this year, so it’s a bipartisan thing. The Washington Post found the numbers to be roughly correct.

So, what do we do? How do we reduce our prison population? Or do we not worry about it even though the politicians do? Send no more than 150 words with your name, address and phone number to letters@star-telegram.com. Deadline is Wednesday.

This story was originally published May 4, 2015 at 5:46 PM with the headline "All Points: America’s bulging prison population."