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GET THE FACTS

What is mass incarceration?

The term mass incarceration refers to the drastic rise in rates of imprisonment, especially among marginalized populations

RACE

  • Clear disparities of racial groups in jail shows a huge bias in the criminal justice system targeting people of color for crimes

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  • 60% of the U.S. prison population is people of color, compared to an overall population that is around 33% people of color

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  • A black man is 6 times more likely than a white man to be incarcerated in his lifetime, and a hispanic man is 2.3 times more likely than a white man

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  • 1 in 3 black men and 1 in 6 latino men are incarcerated in their lifetime, as compared to 1 in 17 white men

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  • 1 in 18 black women and 1 in 45 latina women are incarcerated at some point during their lives, as compared to 1 in 111 white women in the U.S.​

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The United States has the largest incarceration rate of any country in the world, with a prison population of 2,193,798. That's 724 prisoners for every 100,000 people in the U.S.

YOUTH

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  • Even though rates of youth commitment to juvenile facilities has been decreasing from a high point of 77,835 in 1999 to 35,246 in 2013, many youth are sent to adult prisons and jails to serve their sentences, with thousands of youth being transferred to the adult system each year.

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  • Youth of color also enter the prison system at much higher rates than white youth and are much more likely to be sentenced to harsher punishments.

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  • The school to prison pipeline has grown and is becoming worse as more students of color are being suspended, expelled, dropping out of school, resulting in involvements with gangs, drugs, leading them to death or prison.

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"Remember: everyone in the classroom has a story that leads the misbehavior or defiance. 9 times out of 10, the story behind the misbehavior won't make you angry. It will break your heart."

- Annette Breaux

WNYC's Kids in Prison: A Closer Look at Juvenile Justice in NJ and NY

WOMEN IN PRISON

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  • 8 in 10 women in prison have experienced severe abuse as children

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  • An estimated 9 in 10 have endured physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes

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  • Women make up the most rapidly growing portion of our incarcerated population, increasing at almost double the rate of men since 1985.

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  •  â€‹Children of imprisoned women are much more likely to suffer from connection issues and other problems associated with the lack of the presence of a mother figure in the child's life.

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    Click here for more facts, collected by the ACLU, on women in        prison

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Click here for an interview with Stacey Borden, a previously incarcerated woman herself, and the founder of New Beginnings Reentry, a program geared towards helping "supporting and empowering formerly incarcerated women successfully navigate the complex challenges of reentering their communities".

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End the illegal shackling of pregnant women in NYS prisons: The Full Story

DIGNITY for Incarcerated Women

LIFE SENTENCES

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  • 1 in 9 prisoners in the U.S. is serving a life sentence

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  • 1 in 3 lifers have been sentenced to life without parole

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  • As of 2016 there were 161,957 people serving life sentences

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  • In addition, 44,311 individuals are serving "virtual life sentences" 

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  • Longer sentences have not demonstrated a public safety benefit, but our lifer population is almost 5 times what it was in 1984.

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Is a life sentence really just a death sentence?

DRUGS

  • Due to new sentencing policies during the War on Drugs era, the number of Americans incarcerated for drug offenses has shot up from 40,900 in 1980 to 469,545 in 2015.

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  • Mandatory minimums keep people on drug offenses in prison for longer

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  • People incarcerated on a drug conviction make up just under half of the prison population at the federal level

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  • At the state level, there are now 10 times as many people in prison for drug offenses as there were in 1980

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  • Most drug offenders have no prior criminal record for violent offenses nor are high-leveled in the drug trade but still serve an average of 62 months in prison

    • This begs the question of whether drug crimes should be considered an issue of rehabilitation or punishment? 

    • Click here for an article on this issue

A question of rehabilitation or punishment?

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Our job is to make sure non-violent offenders do not get locked up. Our job is to rethink the war on drugs. Our job is to demilitarize police departments. Our job is to end mandatory minimum sentences.

- Sen. Bernie Sanders 

Click for more figures and trends 

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