Ezekiel Edwards

Land of the free?

One of the most alarming issues in American criminal justice is our nationwide policy of mass incarceration, particularly of African-Americans.

Although African-Americans account for only 12% of the United States population, they make up 44% of all prisoners in America. No matter how quotidian such a statistic, it remains astounding. According to the United States Department of Justice, at the end of 2004, there were 3,218 African-American male inmates per 100,000 African-American males in the United States, compared to 463 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.

Whether one travels to the wide-open West or to the Deep South, up to the Great Lakes or to the densely populated Northeast, the situation remains the same. For instance, in South Dakota (as of 2003), where .6% of its population is African-American, African-Americans make up 6.9% of its prison population (a ratio 11 times greater). In Vermont, where only .5% of the population is African-American, in its prisons that percentage jumps ten times to 5.2%. African-Americans make up 34.9% of the prisoners in West Virginia, 11 times more than their 3.2% presence in the general population (perhaps this disparity is due to the fact that African-Americans are over 17 times as likely to be incarcerated in West Virginia as whites). Head here to the Empire State, and you are more than three times as likely to see an African-American behind bars as you are on the street. In the Bronx, where the white population stands at around 30%, white defendants are extremely few and far between (to the point where I can almost count all of my white clients on two hands, and I have represented almost 2,000 people).

In fact, as of 2002, no state had more than 2% of its white population between the ages of 18 and 64 behind bars, yet only one state could say the same for its African-American population (Hawaii). On the contrary, there were 12 states with more than 10% of its African-American population in prison, and 46 out of 50 states with at least 5% or more (only Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, and North Dakota had less). According to the Justice Department, African-American men of all ages nationwide are incarcerated at more than seven times the rate of white men.

In New York State, where its inmates are counted as residents of the county in which they are incarcerated, there are eight counties in which between 50% and 90% of their African-American populations are in prison, another seven counties where between 25% and 49% are in prison, and nine counties where the numbers stand between 10% and 24%. Taken together, New York has 24 counties that incarcerate at least 10% of their African-American populations.

A common retort is that African-Americans commit more crimes. However, the percentage of African-Americans imprisoned for violent crimes is equal to the percentage of white prisoners imprisoned for the same (27%). African-Americans constitute around 13% of all drug users (roughly proportionate to their percentage of the overall population), yet they represent 36% of arrests for drug possession, suggesting that something far more pernicious is at play when it comes to incarceration rates.

As we move further into 2006, 141 years after the end of the Civil War, 52 years after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, amid frequent recognition of the progress made by African-Americans since the Civil Rights movement, there are 15 states (as of 2002) in which African-American men are incarcerated at rates over 10 times greater than those of white men. It is time we abandon the war on drugs and begin fighting against policies of mass incarceration of non-violent offenders.

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Posted at 9:42 AM, Jan 31, 2006 in Criminal Justice
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