Title: Gap between number of blacks, whites in prison narrows | Pew Research Center
Headings: The gap between the number of blacks and whites in prison is shrinking
The gap between the number of blacks and whites in prison is shrinking
Content: Gap between number of blacks, whites in prison narrows | Pew Research Center
The gap between the number of blacks and whites in prison is shrinking
By John Gramlich
Note: For newer data on imprisonment rates, please see this 2020 post . Blacks have long outnumbered whites in U.S. prisons. But a significant decline in the number of black prisoners has steadily narrowed the gap over the past decade, according to new data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. At the end of 2017, federal and state prisons in the United States held about 475,900 inmates who were black and 436,500 who were white – a difference of 39,400, according to BJS. Ten years earlier, there were 592,900 black and 499,800 white prisoners – a difference of 93,100. ( This analysis counts only inmates sentenced to more than a year.) The decline in the black-white gap between 2007 and 2017 was driven by a 20% decrease in the number of black inmates, which outpaced a 13% decrease in the number of white inmates. The gap between white and Hispanic imprisonment also narrowed between 2007 and 2017, but not because of a decrease in Hispanic prisoners. Instead, the number of white prisoners fell while the number of Hispanic inmates increased slightly.