Whites overcounted in prison - Racefile - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included
Nearly all the growth in the nation's prison population over the past 12 years comes from black and Latino communities, according to a recent study from the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA). The study is the first to simultaneously separate prisoners along the lines of race and ethnicity.
The study shows that between 1985 and 1997, when the prison population almost tripled, 70 percent of new inmates were African American, Latino, or other nonwhite minorities. This fact had gone unnoticed because previous official prison population statistics categorized Latinos as white prisoners.
The report finds that whites in prison are considerably overcounted in many states. In 1997, New Mexico reported its prison population as 83 percent white, when the actual percentage was 29 percent. In the same year, Arizona reported that 80 percent of its inmates were white when the figure was actually only 30 percent. In New York, whose prison population doubled between 1985 and 1997--with people of color accounting for over 90 percent of the growth--only 18 percent, not the reported 43 percent, of its inmates were white.
"Counting Hispanic/Latinos as whites hides the magnitude of incarceration of people of color," said Barry Holman, director of public policy at NCIA. "What has been rather antiseptically referred to as a 'racial disparity' is really a gaping divide between whites and nonwhites that far outstrips minority levels in the population or in committing crime.
The study also showed that in three-fourths of the states and the federal system, more than half the prison expansion in that time period came from communities of color, and in no state does the increase in prison reflect the racial and ethnic composition of the overall population. In seven jurisdictions with at least a two-thirds white statewide population, nonwhites accounted for more than 80 percent of the prison growth.
Samantha Chanse, "RaceFile." Samantha is a part-time researcher at the Applied Research Center. She has worked at Californians For Justice during the campaigns to defeat Propositions 209, 227, and 226.
http://www.looksmartreggae.com/p/articles/mi_m0KAY/is_1_5/ai_83457939
Destee
Nearly all the growth in the nation's prison population over the past 12 years comes from black and Latino communities, according to a recent study from the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA). The study is the first to simultaneously separate prisoners along the lines of race and ethnicity.
The study shows that between 1985 and 1997, when the prison population almost tripled, 70 percent of new inmates were African American, Latino, or other nonwhite minorities. This fact had gone unnoticed because previous official prison population statistics categorized Latinos as white prisoners.
The report finds that whites in prison are considerably overcounted in many states. In 1997, New Mexico reported its prison population as 83 percent white, when the actual percentage was 29 percent. In the same year, Arizona reported that 80 percent of its inmates were white when the figure was actually only 30 percent. In New York, whose prison population doubled between 1985 and 1997--with people of color accounting for over 90 percent of the growth--only 18 percent, not the reported 43 percent, of its inmates were white.
"Counting Hispanic/Latinos as whites hides the magnitude of incarceration of people of color," said Barry Holman, director of public policy at NCIA. "What has been rather antiseptically referred to as a 'racial disparity' is really a gaping divide between whites and nonwhites that far outstrips minority levels in the population or in committing crime.
The study also showed that in three-fourths of the states and the federal system, more than half the prison expansion in that time period came from communities of color, and in no state does the increase in prison reflect the racial and ethnic composition of the overall population. In seven jurisdictions with at least a two-thirds white statewide population, nonwhites accounted for more than 80 percent of the prison growth.
Samantha Chanse, "RaceFile." Samantha is a part-time researcher at the Applied Research Center. She has worked at Californians For Justice during the campaigns to defeat Propositions 209, 227, and 226.
http://www.looksmartreggae.com/p/articles/mi_m0KAY/is_1_5/ai_83457939
Destee
... please make yourself at home ... 