With all the talk of China being a police state, the US has more people incarcerated than China - and China's population is more than four times that of the US.
European countries don't have these problems, like the rash of mass shootings we have had in the past few weeks in just Texas.
Also these prisons are a sop to rural communities for money and jobs, with prisoners from the cities. The prisoners also count for congressional districts going to these areas but can not vote.
Of course there is also the profit making of private prisons. Judges have been found sending innocent people to jail for kickbacks.
It is time to solve these problems like Europe does, and one step is incarceration going down to three times the rate of China, as opposed to over four times.