"When I listened to hip-hop music, I found a better way to think about the criminal justice system than in the prosecutor's office," Butler said.

There's a constant in hip-hop culture, a criticism of the criminal justice system. The culture says that the system is dysfunctional.

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Hip-hop as a whole is criticized for its support of criminals, but really the culture is just about "respecting young black men," Butler said. He added that one in three young black men have been arrested.

Hip-hop not only critiques the criminal justice system, but also suggests ways in which it can be improved. According to Butler, the hip-hop view of the system is that prison is simply a bad thing that happens to some people.

Butler believes that reordering our law enforcement priorities would improve the perception that the criminal justice system targets minorities.

Butler believes that one big difference between the criminal justice system that is currently in place and the hip-hop system would be that the usage and selling of drugs would not be as highly prosecuted.

"This is not because they are victimless crimes," Butler said. "This is because they don't trust the government to enforce it fairly."

According to statistics that Butler cited from the Department of Justice, only 12 percent of drug users are black, but 75 percent of the people who are prosecuted on drug-related charges are black.

Butler makes a number of good points, including this: if you want to improve the system, you aren't going to do it as a federal prosecutor. At least, not in a Justice Department controlled by the Bush administration.