Today, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. With over 2.3 million men and women living behind bars, our imprisonment rate is the highest it’s ever been in U.S. history. And yet, our criminal justice system has failed on every count: public safety, fairness and cost-effectiveness. Across the country, the criminal justice reform conversation is heating up. Each week, we feature our some of the most exciting and relevant news in overincarceration discourse that we’ve spotted from the previous week. Check back weekly for our top picks.

U.S. Correctional and Prison Populations Decline

For the second consecutive year, data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed a decline in the adult correctional population, while crime rates decreased as well. Even more promising is the decline in the total U.S. prison population - caused primarily by a decrease in the state prison population (the federal prison population experienced a slight increase). Though the total population only decreased by 0.6%, this is the first total prison population decline since 1972.

996 Kentucky Inmates get out Early in New Prison Plan

In the coming months, Kentucky will attempt to ease its correctional budget strains by releasing nearly 1,000 inmates. Utilizing a new mandatory supervision program, the state aims to ease the often difficult transition from prison back to life in the community.

Illinois' Juvenile Justice System is Failing, State Report Says

A new study by the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission has revealed the shortcomings of the state’s juvenile justice system. According to the study, more than half of teens and children released from the system will end up right back in it, indicating the rehabilitative goals of the system are far from being met.

In Florida, Using Military Discipline to Help Veterans in Prison

In an effort to rethink the way incarcerated veterans are treated and in hopes of better preparing them for release, Florida has created special dorms for honorably discharged veterans with no more than three years left in their sentences. By housing the veterans together, the state hopes to address the special needs of this sub-population in its prison system.

Death Sentences Drop To Historic Lows In 2011

A new report from the Death Penalty Information Center shares promising news: judges and juries sent less than 100 people to death row this year. The wrongful execution of Troy Davis this year, as well as the increased public awareness of the high cost of capital cases may be two reasons why the public is more and more ambivalent or opposed to the death penalty.

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Recently, the juvenile justice community organized a site visit to the Oak Hill Youth Center and the New Beginnings Youth Development Center in Laurel, Maryland, for key congressional staffers and staff in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), including Melodee Hanes, the office's acting Deputy Administrator.

The tour began at the now-closed Oak Hill Youth Center in order to highlight the District of Columbia's previous approach to juvenile justice that relied on punitive measures and secure confinement as a response to juvenile crime. The group then toured the New Beginnings Youth Development Center, D.C.'s new juvenile correctional facility modeled after Missouri's approach to juvenile justice. The Missouri model has given juvenile detention a face-lift, housing residents in dormitory-like settings and creating a culture focused on rehabilitation as well as accountability.

As former public defender and current Georgetown Law School professor James Foreman Jr. noted, "For over two decades, the District's juvenile justice system was a source of shame. Rats and roaches infested Oak Hill, and a court-appointed monitor found snakes in hallways and in residents' beds. Youths assaulted staff, and staff assaulted youths. Drugs, alcohol and weapons were easy to find. Escapes were common."

In 1985 the Public Defender Services and ACLU sued Oak Hill for its poor services to youth in a case known as Jerry M. v. District of Columbia. Despitethe horrifying conditions of the Oak Hill facility and the vulnerability of its residents, more than a decade passed before the battle in the courts was won. Finally, in May 2009, Oak Hill was replaced with New Beginnings, whose name signaled a new chapter in the troubled history of juvenile justice.

Under the Missouri Model which inspired New Beginnings, officials realized that rehabilitation is one of the best means of protecting the public. The new approach does not abandon personal accountability, but instead adds to the meaning by ensuring that youth take responsibility for their offenses as well as their futures, by emphasizing the need to develop skills and make positive choices. As Professor Foreman states, "By teaching juvenile offenders to address their past misdeeds, to read and to imagine a future, the Missouri system prepares them to become productive, law-abiding citizens."

This common sense approach is working. Missouri has the lowest juvenile recidivism rate in the country.

Looking at the five rows of razor wire surrounding the perimeter of Oak Hill's campus, the message could not be more clear — what we had before was a training school for kids to become adult inmates. What we have now is a rehabilitative environment where troubled youth can let their guard down and work through the problems that led them to criminal activity.

Kids can and should be held accountable for their actions while being treated with dignity and respect. Teaching youth consequences does not mean that we have to leave compassion behind, and by integrating both we just might be able to raise youth who don't just obey the law and the rights of other people, but who truly respect them as well.

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Ohio's legislature has not been the friendliest place for civil libertarians this year. Bills under consideration include the most restrictive photo identification requirements for voters, privatizing six of the state's prisons and some of the nation's most aggressive attacks on reproductive freedom.

However, there is one notable bright spot in Ohio's legislative session: the passage of criminal sentencing reform. The ACLU of Ohio has been on the front lines advocating for sensible sentencing reform that would alleviate the state's overcrowded prison system. After two decades of unfair sentencing laws sending more low-level, nonviolent offenders to prison, the state's prison system is at 133 percent capacity with a growing class of ex-felons who are unable to gain access to employment, education and housing.

In August 2010, the ACLU of Ohio released "Reform Cannot Wait," an in-depth examination of research from the last two decades that illustrate how overincarceration in Ohio has led to higher costs to taxpayers, reduced safety and perpetuated racial disparities.

The criminal justice reform legislation, House Bill 86, was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support last week and promises to begin to reverse the years of damage "tough on crime" policies have wreaked on Ohio's criminal justice system and communities. The reforms will:

• Provide alternatives to incarceration for first time nonviolent, low-level offenders;
• Increase the amount of credit prisoners can earn off their sentence for participating in educational and rehabilitative programs;
• Correct the state's crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity; and
• Standardize the state's probation and parole systems.

Passage of H.B. 86 also marked an important victory for juvenile justice advocates. Leaders in the House of Representatives amended the bill to include provisions that will give judges more discretion to determine which youth should be prosecuted as adults and expand nonincarceration options for youth.

The bill is an important win for the ACLU's Safe and Fair Campaign to end overincarceration nationally. We hope other states will follow this important first step and begin to reduce their reliance on overincarceration while saving on their corrections budgets, protecting public safety and increasing fairness in a system that has long lacked equity.

The bill, passed nearly unanimously by legislators, will be signed by Gov. John Kasich today. The ACLU of Ohio, which played a key role in the reforms, will attend the signing.

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Today, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida. In both cases, the petitioners argued that when a child is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, it violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Both Sullivan and Graham committed crimes in which no-one was killed: when he was 13, Joe Sullivan raped a woman, and at 16, Terrance Graham committed armed burglary. Sullivan and Graham are sentenced to die in prison. (Read more about the Graham and Sullivan cases and about the international human rights law angle here.) (PDF)

"A death sentence is what the judge gave me. A long slow death. I would have rather been taken out and shot. I did not understand why I could not go to a place for kids my age." Learn Barbara's story here.

In the United States, approximately 2,570 children are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. Children as young as 13 have been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison without a second chance and an opportunity for release.

We are the only country in the world where children are serving such cruel sentences.

In February 2006, the ACLU submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) challenging the practice of life without parole sentencing for children under universal human rights principles. The petition alleges that the human rights of children sentenced to life without parolesentences in the state of Michigan have been violated. It asks the IACHR to review Michigan sentencing laws as they are applied to children and find them in violation of the American Declaration of the Rights of Man and other universal human rights principles. Read the petition here.

In sentencing children to life sentences without the possibility of parole, the United States is out of step with the rest of the world. As a champion of children's human rights, we should be doing so much better. We must ensure that the most vulnerable members of our society, our children, only receive fair sentences for the crimes they commit and that they are given an opportunity for rehabilitation.