Prison? Good God, Y’all
Have you ever wondered why the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world? Literally. As of 2021, 639 of every 100,000 residents in the United States are incarcerated. Yet, the United States doesn’t rank even in the top 10 safest nations in the world. That begs the question: what is the penal system for? This is something that we are conflicted about as a nation. Also, note that 3 in the top 10 most dangerous prisons in the world belong to … drum roll please … the United States.
Let’s look at who is in prison. 38.3% of inmates in United States prisons are minorities. Minorities are incarcerated at 5 times the rate as whites. Note that 76.6% of the United States population are white, while only 13.4% are black (US Census). This means that black people are over-represented in prisons. FBI database indicates that about 50% of murders are perpetrated by black offenders. So all’s good, right? If more black people are committing murders, then more should go to prison — makes sense if that’s all you look at.
But just looking at a slice of that, based on recent exoneration projects, we know that innocent black people are 7 times more likely to be incarcerated for murder charges than innocent white people. That means that that 50% number needs to be divided by 7 to find the actual proportion of guilty (drops down to about 7%). It doesn’t stop there. A black convict is 3.5 times more likely to be convicted of a sexual assault crime they didn’t commit, 12 times more likely to be convicted of a drug crime, and the list goes on.
All for a system that incarcerates more than anywhere else in the world, and does little to increase the safety of the citizens of our nation. And back up a moment and consider someone who only reviews FBI numbers and now believes that 50% of murders are actually committed by black people in this nation.
Want more? Listen to this podcast to figure it out.
Stats/References:
Rehabilitation - https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab
Prisoner Abuse
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2811042/
https://www.legalexaminer.com/category/legal/inmate-abuse/#:~:text=There%20are%20many%20types%20of,and%20unsanitary%20conditions%20are%20common.
Private Prisons - https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/private-prisons-united-states/
Drug Arrests - https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2022/02/drug-arrests-stayed-high-even-as-imprisonment-fell-from-2009-to-2019
Crime Worldwide - https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistical-activities.html
Violent Crime by Country - https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/violent-crime-rates-by-country
