Washington University conference looks at ways to reverse mass incarceration in the U.S.

Imagine investing $50 billion a year in a program that only has a 50 percent success rate. That’s the annual tab in the U.S. to hold more than 2 million people in jails and prisons on any given day. Experts say half of them wind up back behind bars within three years of being released from custody. And yet, academics and criminal justice professionals who gathered here Friday for a conference at Washington University came with fresh optimism about a trend that over the past 40 years has led the U.S. to have the largest incarcerated population in the world.