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1 in 100 Americans Are Behind Bars, Study Says

by Jarrett Martineau | February 28, 2008 at 09:26 am

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1 in 9 black men between the ages of 20 and 34 are behind bars in the U.S. - that's almost 10% of the entire American black, male, young adult population. I'm shocked and appalled.

Is incarceration really the best way to rehabilitate those who have committed crimes, or are there better, alternative justice provisions that could be imagined for our society?

For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

The report, from the Pew Center on the States, also found that only one in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 is behind bars, but that one in 100 black women is.

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Jordan Yerman

at 10:29 on February 28th, 2008

Exacerbating this is the gap in sentencing between blue- and white-collar crime. Steal a thousand dollars and go to jail; steal ten million and go on a speaking tour.