The prison population has been creeping back upward. New laws in some states instituting harsher punishments threaten to further fill prisons, many of which are already understaffed and overcrowded.

“I am a refugee and I came to this country when I was five,” said Ka Vang, Meet Minneapolis’ vice president of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Access.“We came to the Chicagoland area, had no clothes, ...