A new report on racial disparity in state prisons indicates that our troubling historical trend of racism in the criminal justice system continues.
The report, produced by the Sentencing Project and titled “The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons,” concludes that while incarceration levels are dropping overall, racial disparity is still extremely high. The report finds that:
- African Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate that is 5.1 times the imprisonment of whites. In five states (Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin), the disparity is more than 10 to 1.
- In twelve states, more than half of the prison population is black: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Maryland, whose prison population is 72% African American, tops the nation.
- In eleven states, at least 1 in 20 adult black males is in prison.
- In Oklahoma, the state with the highest overall black incarceration rate, 1 in 15 black males ages 18 and older is in prison.
To put this into more perspective – for every 100,000 white people, 275 of them are in state prisons. For every 100,000 black people, 1,408 of them are in state prisons.
While the report does include numbers for Latino populations, they are notably less reliable than the other figures. Getting a clear picture on ethnicity vs. race has historically been more difficult when analyzing prison statistics, and some states don't collect data on ethnicity. From the report:
It is important to note at the outset that, given the absence or unreliability of ethnicity data in [Alabama, Maryland, Montana, and Vermont], the racial/ethnic disparities in those states may be understated. Since most Hispanics in those instances would be counted in the white prison population, the white rate of incarceration would therefore appear higher than is the case, and consequently the black/white and Hispanic/white ratios of disparity would be lower as well.
The report makes one thing clear: In America, our incarceration woes continue. We still excessively incarcerate people of color, and we still excessively incarcerate in general.
The disparity ratios give some indication of each state's incarceration landscape, but they don't tell the whole story. Disparity can source from a number of different statistical elements at play—high disparity can exist in low incarceration states while lesser disparity can exist in high incarceration states.
Racial disparities in incarceration can arise from a variety of circumstances. These might include a high rate of black incarceration, a low rate of white incarceration, or varying combinations… [T]he states with the highest ratio of disparity in imprisonment are generally those in the northeast or upper Midwest, while Southern states tend to have lower ratios. The low Southern ratios are generally produced as a result of high rates of incarceration for all racial groups. For example, Arkansas and Florida both have a black/white ratio of imprisonment considerably below the national average[...] Yet both states incarcerate African Americans at higher than average rates, 18% higher in Arkansas and 15% higher in Florida. But these rates are somewhat offset by the particularly high white rates, 61% higher than the national average in Arkansas and 63% higher in Florida.
Conversely, in the states with the highest degree of disparity, this is often produced by a higher than average black rate, but a relatively low white rate….In New Jersey, for example, blacks are incarcerated at a rate twelve times higher than whites even though the black incarceration rate is 24% below the national average. This comes about through its particularly low incarceration of whites: 94 per 100,000, or one-third of the national average.
The report lists possible reasons for such racial disparity including policies that exacerbate racial inequity, as well as implicit bias and structural disparity. It also raises possible changes, including reforming drug laws that perpetuate racial inequality, instituting implicit bias training, and implementing racial impact legislation. It also notes that habitual offender laws are more likely to be used against black offenders than white offenders, which requires attention.
While the report addresses some areas in need of change, it doesn't adequately address how we must reform the way we think about violent crimes. Most offenders in state prisons (about 84 percent) are there for violent crimes, and the disparity exists within that category, as well.
Still, this data highlights a reality that continues despite efforts at awareness and change: People of color in America are sentenced to prison at a much higher rate than white people. As long as mass incarceration and racial disparity in incarceration continue, America's criminal justice system requires deep interrogation and structural change.