Although African Americans are Not a Majority of the General Population in Any State, Blacks Account for More than Half of the Prison Population in 12 States
/From [HERE] According to a study, African-Americans account for more than half of the prison population in these 12 states.
Although black Americans do not constitute a majority of the general population in any state, they account for more than half of the prison population in a dozen of them, according to a report.
According to a new research released Wednesday by the Sentencing Project, these states are Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
The Sentencing Project is a non-profit research organization dedicated to criminal justice reform and decarceration.
In numerous states, including California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, the discrepancy between black and white jail populations is greater than 9 to 1. With a Black/White ratio of more than 12 to 1, New Jersey leads the nation in terms of incarceration disparities.
The report noted, “Truly meaningful adjustments to the criminal justice system cannot be made without acknowledging its racist origins.”
The Sentencing Project also discovered that Black Americans are nearly five times as likely as white Americans to be incarcerated in state prisons, while Latinx individuals are 1.3 times as likely as whites to be incarcerated in state prisons.
Wisconsin has the highest rate of Black incarceration in the US, with one out of every 36 Black individuals serving time in a state prison.
The report provided various recommendations to alleviate racial and ethnic inequities in prisons, including the repeal of mandatory minimum sentences and the elimination of arrests for minor narcotics offenses.
Researchers also urged politicians to incorporate an estimate of the policy’s impact on all demographic groups when developing crime bills.