President Obama is making history, again: On Thursday, he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison.

Obama's visit to El Reno federal prison in Oklahoma on July 16 is part of his administration's focus on criminal justice reform. On Monday, Obama announced that he would be commuting the sentences of 46 people convicted for nonviolent drug offenses. And on Wednesday, the White House released a fact sheet detailing the various efforts that have been developed to make the United States' criminal justice system fairer and more effective.

It's clear that Obama is taking a different approach to criminal justice reform than his predecessors, as the New York Times' Peter Baker observes, and his commendable efforts should be acknowledged in their own right. But his recent focus on criminal justice also provides an invaluable window into the dire conditions of a system that continues to disenfranchise so many U.S. citizens and undocumented people ? of which too many remain unaware.

As criminal justice reform begins to take center stage, and as presidential contenders begin crafting their platforms for 2016, here are eight such issues the U.S. public needs to know.

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