Title: Six Charts that Explain Why Our Prison System Is So Insane - The American Prospect
Headings: Six Charts that Explain Why Our Prison System Is So Insane
Six Charts that Explain Why Our Prison System Is So Insane
Paul Waldman

Content: The crimes that landed them there, however, are not too different from their white and Hispanic counterparts. Eighteen percent of blacks in state prisons were convicted of drug crimes, compared to 15 percent of whites and 17 percent of Hispanics. That doesn't mean that one common complaint-that though whites and blacks use drugs at similar rates, blacks are much more likely to be arrested for it-isn't true, because it is. But blacks are also more likely to be arrested for other crimes. Blacks and Hispanics are slightly more likely than whites to be convicted of violent crimes, while whites are slightly more likely to be convicted of property crimes like burglary, larceny, and car theft. But the leading violent crime that lands blacks in prison is robbery, while the leading violent crime for whites is rape or sexual assault. More than twice as many blacks are in state prison for robbery as for rape, while for whites the proportions are reversed (see Table 10 here ). Back to Search Results
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Blog: Vox Pop Paul Waldman Politics Poverty & Wealth Race & Ethnicity Conservatism Legal Affairs
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