COALITION CALLS FOR END TO MASS INCARCERATION

A coalition of police chiefs and prosecutors Wednesday called for an end to mass incarceration and alternatives to mandatory minimum sentencing laws that have swept up scores of non-violent offenders and have driven public prison budgets to the breaking point.

The officials, including Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland, represent a potentially powerful alliance that is seeking a dramatic reversal of a generation of harsh criminal justice policies.

The central message of the newly formed group tracks recent moves by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and the Obama administration to overhaul the U.S. criminal justice system, targeting sentencing policies that have condemned non-violent offenders to decades in overcrowded prisons.

— Kevin Johnson