How just is the criminal justice system? With U.S. crime rates continuing a decades-long decline but incarceration rates remaining at the highest level of any country in the world, it’s a question more and more people are beginning to confront. 

On this edition of In Depth, we speak with Emily Bazelon, who is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and teaches at Yale Law School. Her new book -- "Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration" -- places prosecutors at the center of the story of American mass incarceration, arguing that their power to determine charges and decide plea deals has meant that their influence is often greater than even that of the judges they face in court. We discuss this claim as well as her in depth reporting on the high stakes dramas that unfold each day in America's courtrooms. 

Host: KCBS Radio reporter Keith Menconi