She landed behind bars in Texas because, driving from her home in Illinois to a new job in Prairie View A&M University, she failed to signal a lane change, and then had the audacity to sass a zealous police officer who pulled her over. An argument ensued. Three days later, Bland, who was African-American, was dead in her jail cell, hanged by a plastic garbage bag.

Investigators are still determining whether Bland’s death was the result of suicide or foul play. But her death is just the latest jail-related tragedy. The National Institute of Corrections found in a 2010 survey that inmates commit suicide at a rate three times greater than in the general population.

Like Bland, many of the folks behind bars don’t need to be there. Some are merely being held pending charges that may or may not be filed. Others have committed a nonviolent offense and present no threat. They are there because decades ago the nation adopted strict incarceration rules, so today our prison population dwarfs that of most other countries by an order of magnitude.

But it turns out that mass incarceration does little to improve public safety, while it tears families apart and ruins lives, disproportionately affecting poor and minority communities. Experts are pointing now to a judicial system that uses drug rehabilitation, halfway houses, electronic monitoring or other methods to manage offenders outside of brick-and-mortar jails.

Sandra Bland started her road trip full of hope about working in Texas. She’s now posthumously playing another role in the unfolding human drama dubbed “black lives matter.” Unwise, undeserved incarceration affects people of all races, but blacks and the poor most of all. For these and other reasons, elected officials in Pennsylvania and every other state should look carefully at their mandatory sentencing laws and the policies and practices of their local police departments with an eye to keeping nonviolent offenders out of jail. Reducing the prison population will save money and lives, too.