The U.S. has less than five percent of the world’s population but almost 25 percent of the total prison population. Most of the two million Americans incarcerated today are non-violent offenders, with African American men being far more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes, and sentenced to longer prison terms than white men found guilty of the same offenses. Mandatory minimum requirements are exacerbating the problem by sentencing non-violent drug offenders to 20 to 30 year, or even life, sentences.