"There are more African Americans under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began." — from the book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
[more on these issues at crewof42.com]
Let's go over that again: "There are more African Americans under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began." — from the book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Pause.
Provocative statistic. But I wasn’t sure it was correct so I double checked. The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration on the planet with 2.3 million people behind bars. We pay $63 billion a year on incarceration. At some point soon we need to get smart on crime. Alexander, who is a law professor at Ohio State, has a book out that focuses on black incarceration called The New Jim Crow. I'll soon be reviewing the book on my blog on the Congressional Black Caucus, Crew of 42.
More blacks in the system than as slaves in 1850? Let's look closely at the numbers. Remember "in the system" means people on parole, on probation or incarcerated.
•••• According to the U.S. Census of 1850 the resident population of the U.S. was 23,191,876 including 3,204,313 slaves.
•••• There are about 2.3 million people incarcerated today in the United States, making the U.S. the world's biggest jailer. (source: Bureau of Justice Stats)
•••• According to a PEW Center on the States report in March of 2009, the number of people,"in prison or jail, on probation or parole," is 7.3 million.
•••• About half of the 7.3 million are black. That would be about 3.6 million. (source: PEW CENTER)
•••• The number of blacks enslaved in 1850 was 3.2 million. (source: CENSUS)
The statistic is painfully on the mark. I was hoping it would not be. The book appears to have a few other jarring stats showing how many lives the issue effects, yet there a few public officials regularly trying to work on solutions. It also occurs to me that Public Enemy was writing songs about this very issue more than twenty years ago.
I found this stat in a piece written by Prof. Alexander on HuffPo.
[more at my (unofficial) blog on the Congressional Black Caucus - Crew of 42.com.