Ask a Question
or
Create a Poll
  1. Home /
  2. Questions /
  3. Legal
  4. / Criminal Law
  5. / Incarceration

by Tondoteottotote on August 28th, 2005

Tondoteottotote

Question

Help answer this question below.

What race makes up the biggest portion of the US prison population and why?

  • Like
  • Report
Share:
Other

Answers. Showing one answer.

  • by chipsndip on August 31st, 2005

    chipsndip

    I can not tell you why, but according to a published report, here are the ratio of races incarcerated... this report is by the Department of Justice, and can be found here:
    http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/pjim04.txt

    At midyear 2004 nearly 6 in 10 persons in local jails were
    racial or ethnic minorities. Whites made up 44.4% of the
    jail population; blacks, 38.6%; Hispanics, 15.2%; and other
    races (Asians, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native
    Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders), 1.8%.

    Comments

    • are you serious? i don't want to sound racist, but it's a common fact that blacks are the most commonly jailed due to racist

      dmoneythegreat

      by dmoneythegreat on February 10th, 2006

    • the stats will back this answer.

      Anonymous

      by Anonymous on March 11th, 2006

    • First of all, there are about 150 million more white people than black people in the U.S., so the black community is still disproportionately affected. Also, it's important to recognize the difference between city or county jails and state or federal prisons. Having more white people in local jails and more black people in prisons could be evidence of a few things. 1) the plague of violent crime in black communities (violent crime = longer sentencing) 2) institutional racism in sentencing (black people receiving longer sentences than white people for comparable crimes)

      Anonymous

      by Anonymous on April 18th, 2009

    • Like
    • Report

    3 comments | Post one | Permalink

Want to attach an image to your answer? Click here.

Did this answer your question? If not, then ask a new question or create a poll.

More Questions. Additional questions in this category.

You're reading What race makes up the biggest portion of the US prison population and why?

Follow us on Facebook!

Related Ads

Related Questions

Professionally Researched

Answerbag

a Demand Media company