The Sentencing Project is pleased to announce the publication of a new report, Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration By Race and Ethnicity. The report provides an overview of the use of incarceration in all 50 states, including both prison and jail populations. It can be viewed here: http://sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/rd_stateratesofincbyraceandethnicity.pdf.
Highlights of Uneven Justice include the following:
- African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six (5.6) times the rate of whites and Latinos at nearly double (1.8) the rate of whites.
- There is broad variation among the states in the ratio of black-to-white incarceration, ranging from a high of 13.6-to-1 in Iowa to a low of 1.9-to-1 in Hawaii.
- States with the highest black-to-white ratio are disproportionately located in the Northeast and Midwest, including the leading states of Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Wisconsin.
The Sentencing Project recommends that policymakers and practitioners consider the findings of the report and develop means to reduce unwarranted disparities in the justice system. Recommendations include revisiting drug control policies, addressing overly restrictive mandatory sentencing laws, assessing the impact of "race neutral" policies, and shifting resource allocation to create a broader range of alternatives to incarceration.
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