Incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment

On December 31, 2005, there were 2,193,798 people in U.S. prisons and jails. The United States incarcerates a greater share of its population, 737 per 100,000 residents, than any other country on the planet. But when you break down the statistics you see that incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment.

U.S. incarceration rates by race, June 30, 2004:

• Whites: 393 per 100,000
• Latinos: 957 per 100,000
• Blacks: 2,531 per 100,000

Gender is an important "filter" on the who goes to prison or jail, June 30, 2005:

• Females: 129 per 100,000
• Males: 1,371 per 100,000

Look at just the males by race, and the incarceration rates become even more frightening, June 30, 2005:

• White males: 709 per 100,000
• Latino males: 1,856 per 100,000
• Black males: 4,682 per 100,000

If you look at males aged 25-29 and by race, you can see what is going on even clearer, June 30, 2005:

• For White males ages 25-29: 1,682 per 100,000.
• For Latino males ages 25-29: 3,884 per 100,000.
• For Black males ages 25-29: 11,955 per 100,000. (That's 11.9% of Black men in their late 20s.)

Or you can make some international comparisons:
South Africa under Apartheid was internationally condemned as a racist society.

• South Africa under apartheid (1993), Black males: 851 per 100,000
• U.S. under George Bush (2004), Black males: 4,919 per 100,000

What does it mean that the leader of the "free world" locks up its Black males at a rate 5.8 times higher than the most openly racist country in the world?

Statistics as of June 30, 2005 from Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005, Table 13; Statistics as of June 30, 2004 from Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2004, Tables 14; except for the race rate statistics which are calculated from Table 13 and Census Bureau population estimates. South Africa figures from Marc Mauer, Americans Behind Bars: The International Use of Incarceration. All references to Blacks and Whites are for what the Bureau of Justice Statistics and U.S. Census refer to as "non-Hispanic Blacks" and "non-Hispanic Whites".)

Source: http://www.prisonsucks.com/