In the United States today, 2.3 million citizens are incarcerated. That's 2.3 of about 321 million. In the world, about nine million people are incarcerated, of about seven billion. While these fractions may seem small, these fractions are too big when we are talking about people’s lives. According to these numbers, the United States holds about five percent of the world's population, but miraculously, is the home to 25 percent of its prisoners. How is that possible?

As of 2009, the 1,725,387 drug offenders of all levels made up 26.4 percent of all persons under control of the U.S. Correctional System, including all probationers, parolees and state and federal prisoners.

These numbers are absurd, and they need to change.

On Thursday, July 16, 2015, President Obama was the first sitting President to visit a federal correctional facility. He visited El Reno correctional facility, in El Reno, Oklahoma. He toured the prison and met with a few of the inmates.

Coming away from his visit, he had a few words to say about his goals and his plans, and the way the country as a whole views prison today.

“I think we have a tendency sometimes to almost take for granted or think it’s normal that so many young people end up in our criminal justice system. It’s not normal. It’s not what happens in other countries.”

But my personal favorite quote from the interview after his visit:

“What is normal is teenagers doing stupid things. What is normal is young people making mistakes.”

There is no reason for someone who committed a nonviolent crime to be spending five, 10, 20 or 30 years in prison. Because like President Obama said, people make mistakes. Making a drug mistake is much different than making a mistake that takes someone’s life, and those two are too often treated like the same crime. I hope to see, in the near future, an extreme change to the criminal justice system in the United States, and I hope you are with me.