Title: Same Crime, More Time - Racial Disparities in U.S. Prison System
Headings: Same Crime, More Time
Same Crime, More Time
Content: Same Crime, More Time - Racial Disparities in U.S. Prison System
Same Crime, More Time
Research reveals that racial disparities in the U.S. prison population have declined, but Blacks are still serving longer sentences than whites. Since the era of Reconstruction, ethnic and racial minorities have made up a disproportionate share of the U.S. prison population. But a new report co-authored by William J. Sabol, professor of criminal justice in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, shows that the longstanding racial divide in state prisons — while still significant — has shrunk. The report, which was published by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, examined how disparities in state imprisonment rates changed between 2000 and 2016. During that 16-year period, the ratio of Blacks to whites in state prisons fell from more than eight-to-one to five-to-one. The ratio of Hispanics to whites dropped from a little more than two-to-one to nearly one-to-one. For drug offenses, the decline was particularly stark: In 2016, Blacks were incarcerated for drug crimes at five times the rate of whites. In 2000 it was 15 times the rate. “In the history of incarceration in the U.S., at least since the 1950s, there hasn’t been a similarly large decrease in racial disparity in state prisons,” says Sabol.