John,
Today we released an update to our “Mass Incarceration Trends" fact sheet, which highlights the growth in state and federal prison populations since the early 1970s, and its far reaching effect on families, communities, and society as a whole.
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Report findings include: -
Nearly two million people are living in prisons and jails instead of their communities. Compare this figure to the early 1970s when this count was 360,000 people.
- Black men are six times as likely to be incarcerated as white men and Latinx men are 2.5 times as likely.
- One in 7 people in prison has a life sentence.
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4.4 million Americans are barred from voting due to laws restricting this right for those with felony convictions.
The social, moral, and fiscal costs associated with the large-scale, decades-long investment in mass imprisonment cannot be justified by evidence of its effectiveness. Misguided changes in sentencing law and policy – not crime – account for the majority of the increase in correctional supervision. |
