President-elect Trump and nominees for his upcoming administration often speak about cutting spending in order to reduce the debt. Some of the targets are familiar, but one that is never mentioned is the amount of money that could be saved by releasing, or not incarcerating in the first place, nonviolent offenders.

According to The Sentencing Project, 72.1 percent of federal prisoners are serving time for a nonviolent offense and have no history of violence. More than half are for drug offenses.

The U.S. has more people incarcerated in jails and prisons than any other "free" nation.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, prisons, jails and other forms of incarceration "hold over 1.9 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,323 juvenile correctional facilities, 142 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian........

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