The Role Incarceration of African Americans Has Played in Perpetuating Inequality

The NAACP furnishes statistics on the racial disparities of the American incarceration system: In 2014, African Americans constituted 2.3 million, or 34%, of the total 6.8 million correctional population. African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites. The imprisonment rate for African American women is twice that of white women. Nationwide, African American children represent 32% of children who are arrested, 42% of children who are detained, and 52% of children whose cases are judicially waived to criminal court. Though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately 32% of the US population, they comprised 56% of all incarcerated people in 2015. If African Americans and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates as whites, prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40%. Drug Sentencing Disparities In the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 17 million whites and 4 million African Americans reported having used…

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