Ethnicity and Incarceration

(rates length of time for

same crimes)
By: Ryan Harlan

Non violent vs
violent
Mandatory
Minimums
Ethnicity and
Incarceration
rates

Sentencing
laws
Time spent
for crime

Men
Gender
Women

Y
o
u
t
h
War on drugs

Domestic
policy

Whites
Whites
Ethnicity

Non-Whites

Population
In prison

Non-whites

United States
The United States has the highest Incarceration rate in the world. We
place more people in jail than we have prisons to hold them, in the past
40 years incarceration rated for crimes has gone up due to the fact that
crime rates have dropped. The factors of this rise in incarcerations has
to deal with two major things longer prison sentences and higher
chance of imprisonment.

United States vs the rest of the world

Nationwide Incarceration Rates

Across the Nation the
rates of incarceration
are high mostly found
in the southern states
of the United States
according to this graph.
The highest
incarceration rate is
found in the state of
Louisiana. Due to the
war on drugs.

Virginia

Incarceration rates for crimes

Prison Population
In prisons and jails across the United
States you find that mostly African
Americans and Latinos make up the
majority of the population in prisons and
in jails, however African Americans and
Latinos make up about at least a quarter
of the United States population.

African American Incarceration rates

About 12% of African Americans make up the United
States population however they make up about 37%
of the population in jails and prisons. This due to the
fact that African Americans serve the same time of
imprisonment for a drug offense as whites serve time
for a violent offense which is about 5 years, In addition
to sentencing African Americans

Ethnicity
African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million
incarcerated population.
African Americans are incarcerated about 6 times the rate of whites.
if African American and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates
of whites, todays prison and jail populations would decline by
approximately 50%.
Mostly the population in prisons and jails is comprised of African
Americans and Hispanics.

Gender
In terms of gender men make up more of the populations in jails and
prisons than women, men have a incarceration rate that is 14 times
higher than women.
1-3 African American males born today will most likely spend time in
prison
1-6 latino males have a chance of going to prison
1-45 latina women have a chance of going to prison
1-100 African American women will spend time in prison
1-17 white males have a chance of going to prison
1-111 white women have a chance of going to prison

Youth Incarceration
Nationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile arrests, 44% of
youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are judicially waived to
criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons. While
on the other hand for white and latinos the rate of incarceration is less.
Due to Inner city crime prompted by social and economic isolation, Zero
Tolerance policies as a result of perceived problems of school violence
have an adverse affect on black children, 35% of black children grades
7-12 have been suspended or expelled at some point in their school
careers compared to 20% of Hispanics and 15% of whites

Drug Sentencing laws

About 14 million Whites and 2.6 million African Americans report using an illicit
drug
5 times as many Whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African
Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of Whites
African Americans represent 12% of the total population of drug users, but 38%
of those arrested for drug offenses, and 59% of those in state prison for a
drug offense.
African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense
(58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months)(5 years).

War on Drugs
This is a Term Created by Richard Nixon in 1971 who in the 70s passed
a law that continued the previous drug laws we had in place from 1914,
he also repealed the 2-10 year minimums for possession of drugs. The
term war on drugs was coined when two congressmen in 1971 released
a report of the use of heroin of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam about 10-15% of
servicemen were addicted to heroin. In response to this in 1973 the DEA
was established to replace BNDD, then later in the 80s George H.W.
Bush pushed to involve the CIA and the military into conflicts with
drugs. This really did nothing overall in the United States it was meant
to target African Americans and hippies.

Video
https://vimeo.com/139008979