Mass Incarceration, Bruce Western, Sociologist, identifies the current inevitability of prison life for young black men. In this video, Western demonstrates how Incarceration has become a regular event for black youth in the U.S. He discusses how, from the beginning, black men’s and women’s liberties in America were never firmly established and remain that way today.
The following are facts about mass incarceration every year in the U.S.
Facts About Mass Incarceration
01. There are more than 2.4 million people behind bars in America.
02. Since 1980, the number of people incarcerated in U.S. prisons has quadrupled.
03. The incarceration rate in the United States is more than four times higher than the incarceration rate in the U.K. and more than six times higher than the incarceration rate in Canada.
04. Approximately 12 million people cycle through local jails in the U.S. annually.
05. The United States has the largest prison population and the highest incarceration rate worldwide.
06. Approximately one out of every four prisoners are in U.S. prisons, but the United States only accounts for about five percent of the global population.
07. Maryland (total population of 5.9 million) has more prisoners than Iraq (total population of 31.9 million).
08. Ohio (total population 11.6 million) has more prisoners than Pakistan (total population 192.1 million).
African American Males
09. Incredibly, 41 percent of all young people in America have been arrested by the time they turn 23.
10. An astounding 37.2 percent of African-American men aged 20 to 34 with less than a high school education were incarcerated in 2008.
11. At this point, private prison companies operate more than 50 percent of all “youth correctional facilities” in this nation.
12. More African-Americans are under “correctional supervision” right now than were in slavery in the United States in 1850.
13. The incarceration rate for African-American men is more than six times higher than for white men’s.
14. Between 1990 and 2009, the number of Americans in private prisons increased by about 1600 percent.
15. Approximately 90 percent of those held in prisons in the United States are men.
16. Police in New York City conducted nearly 700,000 “stop-and-frisk searches” in 2011 alone.
17. The “SWATification” of America has gotten completely and totally out of control. For example, in 1980, there were only about 3,000 SWAT raids in the United States for the entire year. Today, more than 80,000 SWAT raids are in the United States every year.
18. Illegal immigrants make up approximately 30 percent of the total population in our federal, state, and local prisons.
19. The average “minimum security” inmate in federal prison costs U.S. taxpayers $21,000 annually.
20. The average “maximum security” inmate in federal prison costs U.S. taxpayers $33,000 annually.
21. Keeping these people locked up costs more than 60 billion dollars annually.
The Rise in The Rate of Incarceration
Mass Incarceration, between 1980 and 2011, the number of people incarcerated grew from 500,000 to 2.2 million. The rise in the incarceration rate has disproportionately impacted individuals and communities of color. According to a 2008 Pew Center on the States study, one out of every 106 white males ages 18 or older is incarcerated. One out of every 36 Hispanic males ages 18 or older is incarcerated, and one in every 15 black males ages 18 or older is incarcerated.
In many of the United States’ largest cities, more than half of young black men are either in the correctional population or released but are now stigmatized with a criminal record.
Source: Infowars…