a Bureau of Justice Statistics bulletin, Prisoners in 2007)to note these facts:
- The total number of
prisoners under the jurisdiction of
Federal or State adult correctional
authorities was 1,598,316 at the end
of 2007. Nearly 93 percent were
males and 7.2 percent were females. - The rate of incarceration in prison at
the end of 2007 was 506 sentenced
inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, a
rate equivalent to about 1 in every
198 U.S. residents serving a prison
term of over one year. - The incarceration rate for females in 2007
was 69 per 100,000 population. For
males, the incarceration rate was 955
per 100,000 population. - In 2007, Black males had an
imprisonment rate of 3,138 per
100,000 U.S. residents, compared to
a rate of 481 for White males and
1,259 for Hispanic or Latino males. - Black females had an imprisonment
rate of 150 per 100,000 U.S.
residents, compared to a rate of 50
per 100,000 for White females and
79 per 100,000 for Hispanic or
Latino females.
I note that they did the math for the general rate of imprisonment, but not for males or black males especially. Note that the male population in general, we had the equivalent of roughly 1 in 105 of our men serving a year in prison in 2007, and for black men in particular that came to 1 out of 32.
*shakes head*
That seems pretty high to me. I have to wonder, as a society, if we can't do better than that.
