If Black women are wondering just how many brothers are in prison, which is causing a shortage of good Black men, look at the stats below and ask yourself, "why is the United States Judicial System incarcerating so many of my Black brothers."

By sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age group, United States, 2001

Rate of sentenced prisoners per 100,000 residents 


Male
Total	White	Black	Hispanic

896	462	3,535	1,177


Female
Total	White	Black	Hispanic

58	36	199	61

Total Arrest

Total		White		Black

9,068,977	6,324,006	2,528,368

Three out of 10 Black men are imprisoned while less than 1 white men are. In other words, if ten Black men were standing on one corner and ten white men were standing on another, it is more likely that 3 of the Black men will go to prison while basically none of the white men will.

According to the above stats, there are more whites arrested in a given year but there are more Blacks and Hispanics in prisons and jails throughout the nation. What could be the reasoning behind this? Do whites have better lawyers? Are whites able to afford lawyers that know how to keep them out of the prisons and jails?

In the same scenario of the corner, the arrest stats suggest that out of the 10 white men standing on the corner, six would be arrested and in correlation with the imprisonment stats, none would go to jail. On the other hand, if out of 10 Black men on a corner, two would be arrested but in correlation with the imprisonment stats, three would go to jail. How is this possible?

Because of economic reasons. Would it not be sufficient in concluding that minorities are economically disadvantage when dealing with the justice system? If this were not the case, what other reason would justify why if more whites were arrested than any other racial group, there is more minority groups incarcerated? Racial profiling comes to mind.

Could it be that minorities are discriminated against in the judicial system and that they are more likely to be incarcerated than whites? The stats show that the prisons and jails are overcrowded with Blacks and Hispanics and the white prison population is three times less than the others are.

If anyone can justify these stats with logic other than using the made-up notion of the natural criminal nature of the races, please do.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statis - tics, Prisoners in 2001, Bulletin NCJ 195189 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, July 2002), p. 12, Table 16. terms, see Appendix 15.

© 2003 by AfroStaff