In today's society the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. This high rate of incarceration is due to the growing phenomenon known as mass incarceration. This phenomenon has led to a massive increase in the number of people incarcerated and the amount of money used for these prisons. The book Race to Incarcerate by Marc Mauer focuses on mass incarceration as our default social policy due to the weak welfare state in the United States. In the book Mauer discusses the causes and problems of this policy. Mass incarceration has led prison populations to increase dramatically. The reason for this increase in population is due to sentencing policies that put many men and women in prison for an unfair amount of time. The prison population has been caused by periods of high crime rates, by the media's assembly-line approach to producing news that distorts the truth of crimes, and by political figures who prey on citizens' fear. For example, this fear can be seen in “Richard Nixon's famous “law and order” campaign that spoke to those fears, hostilities, and racist underpinnings” (Mauer p. 52). This causes law enforcement to focus on crimes involving violent felons/offenders. Like gang members, driven by shootings, drug dealers and serial killers. Instead of our legal agencies focusing their attention on the root causes of crime. For example, why these crimes are committed, family and prevention services. These agencies choose to fight crime by establishing a “War on Drugs” and “Get Tough” sentencing policies. These policies include "three strikes laws, mandatory minimum sentences, and juvenile waiver laws that allow children to be tried as adults. Many people...at the heart of the paper...wanted to get tough on criminals" (video ), but this method obviously doesn't work. All in all, the United States is at a crossroads and must make a decision. The decision is to stick with their current policy of mass incarceration or choose to explore similar ideas from Marc Mauer. Mauer believes that our current system is not a good option for our society and needs to be changed as soon as possible. He wants our system to address the underlying issues of why people commit crimes rather than just throwing them in prison for a long period of time and then just throwing them out on the streets. Overall, I agree with Mauer's agreement because it highlights numerous flaws in our current system and makes me wonder why our country has such a high incarceration rate compared to other countries. And what are these other countries doing that we are not doing?!?