Another Record Set in Prison Nation

By TChris, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 11:11:08 PM EST
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Prison Nation sets another record:

About one in every 31 adults in the United States was in prison, in jail or on supervised release at the end of last year, the Department of Justice reported yesterday. An estimated 2.38 million people were incarcerated in state and federal facilities, an increase of 2.8 percent over 2005, while a record 5 million people were on parole or probation, an increase of 1.8 percent.

The racial disparity that TalkLeft highlighted in this story is confirmed by the statistics:

In several states, incarceration rates for blacks were more than 10 times the rate of whites. In Iowa, for example, blacks were imprisoned at 13.6 times the rate of whites, according to an analysis of the data by the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy group.

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Another Record Set in Prison Nation | 6 comments (6 topical)

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WE'RE NUMBER 1, (none / 0) (#1)
by cpinva on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 12:23:12 AM EST

WE'RE NUMBER 1!

oh, wait, that isn't a good thing, in this particular instance. on the other hand, consider all the jobs these people are supporting. they are, in their own way, contributing significantly to the economy.

hey, you have to look at the positives!

Lower unemployment rate (none / 0) (#2)
by bernarda on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 06:36:30 AM EST

European countries typically have 7 or 8 times fewer people in prison and thus they have higher official unemployment.

I forget where I got this link, but it shows something about White America's attitude towards race and crime - in this case the death penalty. scroll down about halfway:

Do you favor or oppose
the death penalty for
persons convicted of
murder?

Whites

Strongly oppose 17.95%
Somewhat oppose 17.09
Somewhat favor 29.06
Strongly favor 35.90
% Favor 64.96%b

Some people say∗ that
the death penalty is
unfair because most
of the people who are
executed are African
Americans.

Stongly oppose 11.38%
Somewhat oppose 11.79
Somewhat favor 25.20
Strongly favor 51.63
% Favor 76.83%b
% Favor v. Baseline +12% favorab

There was a 12% increase in favor when Afro-Americans were designated.

Race and the Death Penalty

Britain trying to catch up (none / 0) (#3)
by mal contends on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 11:35:08 AM EST

Nigel Morris has a piece in The Independent: As the Government plans to build more jails, the shocking state of crime and punishment in Britain is revealed.
America and Britain leading the world in putting its' populations behind bars; something is wrong with this picture.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article3226395.ece

###

statistics (none / 0) (#4)
by diogenes on Thu Dec 06, 2007 at 08:46:58 PM EST

What's the ratio of people who commit crimes? Maybe blacks are a majority of drug dealers, even at lower levels in the drug-running ranks. There was a time during prohibition when Italian mafia folks were committing the majority of alcohol sales crimes. I'm sure even today that a disproportionate number of Colombians are in prison for cocaine crimes in this country.
Hardly anyone goes to prison for committing their first offense. Most criminals aren't caught while committing the first offense, many if caught aren't charged, and many then plea bargain or get probation, especially if it is a first offense.

So-called drug crimes (none / 0) (#5)
by bernarda on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 06:34:06 AM EST

Black Americans have about the same rate of drug use as White Americans. But they are sent to jail at a much much higher rate.

Fun with stats (none / 0) (#6)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Fri Dec 07, 2007 at 09:07:11 AM EST

Using Iowa is a case of having fun with stats.

Whenever you take a very small subgroup that is very different in many ways that predict criminal activity, such as average age, marital status, education, income, parentage, housing, etc. it would be amazing if incarceration rates were even close.