ABSTRACT
Mass incarceration, which caused the sharp increase in the American prison population over the last five decades, explains why America today comprises five percent of the world's population but houses twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners. This widespread issue has led to many others, including prison overcrowding. American prisons are dramatically overcrowded, with 2,068,000 prisoners as of 2019. Of the fifty states and the District of Columbia, twelve of them have a prison population that is more than fifty percent Black, even though only 13.4% of the US population is Black. Although many incarcerated people are in jail awaiting trial, the majority are incarcerated because they were sentenced there. Therefore, sentencing reform must be part of the solution. This Note will argue that prosecutors should have a duty to recommend non-custodial sentencing whenever feasible, and to otherwise pursue the lowest prison sentence available, because of 1) current overcrowding in prisons, 2) the impact of current COVID-19 protocols, and 3) the societal impact of incarceration.