In this chapter, you will learn how to:

1. Understand the evolution of the criminal justice system in the United States
2. Understand how mass incarceration is powerfully linked to economic inequality in the United States
3. Describe the political economy of the corrections sector, including powerful players and interests, as well as underrepresented ones
4. Identify seven problems encountered in the criminal justice sector, as well as the policies, regulations, and organizational factors pertinent to them
5. Develop Red Flag Alerts for each of the seven problems at the micro advocacy level
6. Identify policy resources available to policy advocates with respect to each of the seven core problems
7. Identify strategies for moving from micro policy advocacy to mezzo and macro policy advocacy in the criminal justice sector
8. Engage the eight challenges in the multilevel policy empowerment framework in the criminal justice sector