Table of Contents
What is the racial breakdown of US prisons?
Statistics
| Race | # of Inmates | % of Inmates |
|---|---|---|
| Asian | 2,268 | 1.4% |
| Black | 60,494 | 38.3% |
| Native American | 4,015 | 2.5% |
| White | 91,001 | 57.7% |
What percent of all prisoners are black?
Key Statistics: Percent of Black Americans in the general U.S. population: 13% + Percent of people in prison or jail who are Black: 38% +
What are the demographics of prisons?
At midyear 2020, inmates ages 18 to 34 accounted for 53% of the jail population, while inmates age 55 or older made up 7%. Black U.S. residents (465 per 100,000 persons) were incarcerated at 3.5 times the rate of white U.S. residents (133 per 100,000 persons) at midyear 2020.
What ethnicity is incarcerated the most?
Key findings. Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly 5 times the rate of white Americans. Nationally, one in 81 Black adults in the U.S. is serving time in state prison.
Does race and ethnicity matter in the criminal justice system?
The evidence from research strongly and consistently demonstrates that some racial and ethnic minorities are involved in violent crime far beyond their numbers in the population.
How does race affect the criminal justice system?
The evidence for racial disparities in the criminal justice system is well documented. The disproportionate racial impact of certain laws and policies, as well as biased decision making by justice system actors, leads to higher rates of arrest and incarceration in low-income communities of color.
What is the percentage of black people in jail?
Inmates in adult facilities, by race and ethnicity. Jails, and state and federal prisons. According to the United States Bureau of Justice, in 2014 6% of all Black males ages 30 to 39 were in prison, while 2% of Hispanic and 1% of White males in the same age group were in prison.
How does the incarceration rate differ between Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites?
The disparity between the incarceration rate of Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites fell slightly over the same period from 3.31 in 2006 to 3.13 in 2016. State prisons house almost all the offenders convicted of a violent crime in each respective state. In contrast to federal prisons, state prisons mostly consist of violent offenders.
What percentage of the US prison population is Asian?
Asians, however, make up 1.5% of the federal prison population and 4.8% of the national population. This pattern is seen with White Americans as well, they make up 25% of the federal prison population but are 63.7% of the US population.
What percentage of prisoners are immigrants?
From 1850 to 1940, racial and ethnic minorities—including foreign-born and non-English speaking European immigrants— made up 40 to 50 percent of the prison population. 3