Over seven million people in the U.S. are in jail, prison, on parole or probation, according to a new study by the Pew Center on the States based on U.S. Justice Dept and Census Bureau Statistics.
That is about one in 31 adults. Over 2.3 million were incarcerated by the end of 2007.
Black adults are four times as likely as Whites and nearly 2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control. One in 11 Black adults – 9.2 percent – was under correctional supervision at year-end 2007.
“Black adults are four times as likely as Whites and nearly 2.5 times as likely as Hispanics to be under correctional control. One in 11 Black adults – 9.2 percent – was under correctional supervision at year-end 2007,” according to the report.
"And although the number of female offenders continues to grow, men of all races are under correctional control at a rate five times that of women." (In case you thought Madea Goes to Jail was a joke.)
Although the U.S. has only five percent of the total world population, Americans represent 25 percent of the total incarcerated.
Learn more about the prison industrial complex at Critical Resistance.
