Statistics of incarcerated African-American males

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The process of gathering and analysing statistics on an incarcerated African-American males has been taken by several studies on a specific age group, geographical location, causes of incarceration or simply the upbringing of a child over a course of years. Approximately 12%-13% of the American population is African-American, but they make up 40.1% of the almost 2.1 million male inmates in jail or prison (U.S. Department of Justice, 2009).[1] Census data for 2000 of the number and race of all individuals incarcerated in the United States revealed a wide racial disproportion of the incarcerated population in each state: the proportion of blacks in prison populations exceeded the proportion among state residents in twenty states; the percent of blacks incarcerated was five times greater than the resident population.

Contents

Estimated number of inmates held in state or federal prison or in local jails per 100,000 residents in the years of 2003-2007, 2010. [edit]

2010 434
2007 462
2006 479
2005 468
2004 492
2003 483

I have adjusted the numbers, which were too large by x10, to conform to the numbers given in William J. Stuntz in "The Collapse of American Criminal Justice," who writes, "America's imprisonment rate rose from fewer than 100 per 100,000 population in the early 1970s to more than 500 today." See page 244.

Statistics by age group [edit]

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  • A black male born in 1991 has a 29% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life.2
  • Nearly one in three African American males aged 20–29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation.
  • One out of nine African American men will be incarcerated between the ages of 20 and 34.
  • Black males ages 30 to 34 have the highest incarceration rate of any race/ethnicity.

(According to America Community Survey.)

Prison vs. College [edit]

Several studies, including one by the Justice Policy Institute, which advocates alternatives to incarceration, have concluded that overall, more black males are in prison than are enrolled in colleges and universities. In 2000 there were 791,600 black men in prison and 603,032 enrolled in college versus 1980, when there were 143,000 black men in prison and 463,700 enrolled in college. In 2003, according to Justice Department figures, 193,000 black college-age men were in prison, while 532,000 black college-age men were attending college. On an average day in 1996, more black male high school dropouts aged 20–35 were in custody than in paid employment; by 1999, over one-fifth of black non-college men in their early 30’s had prison records. 1

Black Dropouts by Gender [edit]

Percentage of Black high school dropouts 16 to 25

Year Percentage
1972 22.3
1980 20.8
1985 16.1
1990 11.9
1995 11.1
1996 13.5
1997 13.3
1998 15.5
1999 12.1
2000 15.3
2001 13.0
2002 12.8
2003 12.5
2004 13.5
2005 12.0
2006 9.7

The government is building prisons based on third grade reading test scores[citation needed]. They can conclude whether or not a child will go to prison and some point if their literacy score is low. Recent national data from a study of beginning kindergartners show conclusively that African American males start school already behind other groups of children with respect to emergent reading and mathematical skills (ECLS-K, 1998). Thus, problems in elementary school may have roots in the preschool years. Most African American Children are behind on reading but excel in other subjects (Jencks & Phillips, 1998). The gaps don't stop in elementary school, but are evident in middle and high school if never caught up by the early elementary years (Gordon 2-4)

A new release as September 2012 from Schott Foundation finds only 52% of Black male’s graduate from high school. From 2001-2002 black males increased and by 10 percent, and 2010-11,was the first year that more than half the black males received a diploma according to The Urgency of Now: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males.<www.blackboyreport.org>

The leading causes of incarceration for African American males [edit]

  1. The leading cause of incarceration of an African American male is a non-violent drug offense. www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/64
    1. Between 1985 and 1995 the American prison population of drug offenders increased from 38,900 to 224,900 with African American males at the top (King 166).
  2. Person crimes
  3. Property crimes

See also [edit]

References [edit]

[2] [3] [4]

  1. ^ "Prison Inmates 2009 - Statistical Tables (Table 16).". 
  2. ^ http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/western/pdfs/western_asr.pdf
  3. ^ King, Wilma. African American Childhoods: Historical Perspectives from Slavery to Civil Rights / Wilma King. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print.
  4. ^ Gordon, Jacob U. The Black Male in White America. Hauppauge, N.Y: Nova Science Publishers, 2002. Print.
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