The United States is five percent of the world’s population and has twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners (NAACP). Prisons have continued to get more over crowded over the years and have caused serious concerns for prisons across the nation. Crime rates have gone up over the years and one can argue that it may be beneficial for both sides of the system to find alternatives to incarceration. Prison has not been proven as rehabilitation for behavior, as two-thirds of prisoners will reoffend (NAACP). So by constantly throwing people into prisons with no intent to rehabilitate these people for the better, they are bound to reoffend having had nothing positive come out of their prison experience. Prisons and jails consume a growing portion of the nearly $200 billion we spend annually on public safety (NAACP). Incarcerating people has shown to be very expensive and has only continued to grow over the years costing a lot of money to keep this process going. Prisons are expensive; they cost each resident of the United States approximately one hundred and four dollars each year. (Clear, Cole, Reisig 2013 p.463). It is unfair for the cost of prisons to go up on a resident of the United States because the system can't figure out a more cost effective way. People are paying more money for other people making mistakes and being where they are, and that problem is just getting larger and larger making it necessary for more prisons to open up being even more expensive on residents of the United States, Prison overcrowding has become a serious problem in America. There is currently just not enough space in prisons for all convicted criminals to fully serve their sentences. This leads to the early release of offenders who are not ready to successfully reenter the community (Upmeyer). The emergency release of offenders out the back door, in an effort to free up space for those at the front door, threatens the public safety of communities. This is neither effective nor efficient policy (Upmeyer). As stated in the American Legislative Exchange Council, “The problem grew during the late 1980's and early 1990's, when state and local governments passed tough-on-crime legislation. For example, California passed the “three strikes and you're out” law which called for mandatory sentencing of repeat offenders, and New York adopted the “Broken Windows” strategy that called for the arrest and prosecution of all crimes large and small. Policy such as this led to reduced crime rates, but increased populations in jails and prisons” (Upmeyer). By applying those policies to the criminal justice system it went around finding the best rehabilitation for someone and focused straight on the idea of incarceration being the best option. The three strikes and you're out