For the first time in American history, according to The New York Times, a president visited a prison. Hard to believe given the enormous damage that decades of mass incarceration have brought to the United States. Afterwards Barack Obama spoke words that hopefully find receptive ears in America’s legislature and judicial branches: “These are young people who made mistakes that aren’t that different than the mistakes that I made, and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made. The difference is they did not have the kinds of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes.”