Story highlights America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, holding 25% of the world's prisoners

Evan Feinberg: We must change the dismal status quo with specific solutions

Evan Feinberg is the president of Generation Opportunity, a youth advocacy group that promotes less government and more freedom. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) Criminal justice reform is rapidly becoming one of the few bipartisan issues of our time. It's about time.

America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 5% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners. Nearly 2½ million Americans are in prison. Over 65 million people, or 20% of the country, have criminal records. Most disturbingly, nearly 40% of our country's prisoners are African-Americans, who only make up 13% of the general population.

Evan Feinberg

It's time for policymakers to address this criminal justice crisis head on. We must change the dismal status quo. We must start by asking a simple question: Why are so many Americans criminals? Look no further than Washington, which has spent the past century devising the most complicated — and nonsensical — criminal code known to man.

The federal criminal code includes over 4,500 laws and counting, not to mention government regulations for which there are criminal penalties. The list of federal crimes is so long, so broad and so vague that you and I likely commit three felonies every day, unwittingly breaking numerous federal laws as we go about our daily business.

No wonder America's prison population is out of control. Americans aren't addicted to crime; our politicians are addicted to criminalizing things.

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