Dear John, Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons across the country at nearly five times the rate of whites, and Latinx Americans are 1.3 times as likely to be incarcerated than non-Latinx whites, according to a new report by The Sentencing Project, The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons. The report, authored by Senior Research Analyst Ashley Nellis, documents the rates of incarceration for white, Black, and Latinx Americans for each state. Although Black Americans are not a majority of the general population in any of the 50 states, they make up more than half of the prison population in a dozen states: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. New Jersey tops the nation in terms of disparity in its incarceration rates, with a Black/white ratio of more than 12 to 1. Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Connecticut follow closely behind, incarcerating Black Americans at about 10 times the rate of white people. Latinx individuals are incarcerated nationally in state prisons at a rate that is 1.3 times the rate for non-Latinx whites, but at a much higher rate in Massachusetts (4.1), Connecticut (3.7), New York (3.0), and North Dakota (2.4). In raw numbers, Latinx incarceration is highest in border and southwestern states. The report includes policy recommendations designed to decrease racial and ethnic disparities in imprisonment: - Eliminate all mandatory minimums
- Enact racial impact statements that require crime bills to be accompanied by an estimate of the policy’s impact on demographic groups
- Discontinue arrest and prosecution for low-level drug offenses that often lead to accumulation of prior convictions
While prison population growth has slowed in most states due to sentencing reforms intended to create a more fair and proportionate criminal legal system, differential treatment on the basis of race sustains mass incarceration. Any reform effort to scale back our overreliance on imprisonment must also address these staggering racial and ethnic disparities head-on. |
