Incarceration Statistics of Black Males

LadyT

LadyT

JPP Modarater
Contributor
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LadyT said:
I keep hearing that there are more black males in jail than in college.

Where are you people getting these statistics from. According to the DOJ in 2005 there were approximately 291K black males in jail. According to the US Census in 2005 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school/cps2005.html - TABLE 10 ) there were 864k enrolled in college. I'm just curious as to how people are coming up with these stats.
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Which is what I have stated. There are more in college than in jail. Tell BAC, he's the one that rejects this on its face.
 
Damocles said:
Which is what I have stated. There are more in college than in jail. Tell BAC, he's the one that rejects this on its face.
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He's not the only one perpetuating that myth. I hear it a lot even outside this board.
 
LadyT said:
I keep hearing that there are more black males in jail than in college.

Where are you people getting these statistics from?

According to the DOJ in 2005 there were approximately 291K black males in jail http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/jailracetab.htm.

According to the US Census in 2005 (http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school/cps2005.html - TABLE 10 )

there were 864k enrolled in college. I'm just curious as to how people are coming up with these stats.
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The "more black men are in jail" brouhaha was in the media recently. And was being trumpeted in cyberspace:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2223709.stm


I'm glad you found the DOJ statistics, because it shows you can't believe everything you read on blogs as such.
 
Cypress said:
I'm glad you found the DOJ statistics, because it shows you can't believe everything you read on blogs as such.
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you really can't and that's the sad thing. If something is repeated enough, it becomes the 'truth' regardless of presented evidence.

Now its possible that I'm leaving something out in its entirety, but if that's the case someone please advise.
 
LadyT said:
you really can't and that's the sad thing. If something is repeated enough, it becomes the 'truth' regardless of presented evidence.

Now its possible that I'm leaving something out in its entirety, but if that's the case someone please advise.
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Why does it even matter? Is there some kind of horse race going on between males in college and males in prison, to see who's going to win?

I think its only important to racists, who want to grasp on to some statistic to "prove" black males are criminals.

In the rational world, we all know that the war on drugs has locked up a disproportionate number of black males. Its a problem. But, does having some kind of horse race, to see which statistic wins, really solve anything?
 
Cypress said:
Why does it even matter? Is there some kind of horse race going on between males in college and males in prison, to see who's going to win?

I think its only important to racists, who want to grasp on to some statistic to "prove" black males are criminals.

In the rational world, we all know that the war on drugs has locked up a disproportionate number of black males. Its a problem. But, does having some kind of horse race, to see which statistic wins, really solve anything?
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It is also important to people who want to 'prove' that the US is more racist than it is. It is a problem that doesn't need exaggeration to fix.
 
Cypress said:
Why does it even matter? Is there some kind of horse race going on between males in college and males in prison, to see who's going to win?

I think its only important to racists, who want to grasp on to some statistic to "prove" black males are criminals.

In the rational world, we all know that the war on drugs has locked up a disproportionate number of black males. Its a problem. But, does having some kind of horse race, to see which statistic wins, really solve anything?
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I think that keeping tabs of disproportionate # of minorities is important. But as for this particular seemingly false statistic I'm in agreement with you.
 
I don't think these numbers are accurate. The numbers indicate a total jail population of 751,800. I think that is way low.
 
Dungheap said:
I don't think these numbers are accurate. The numbers indicate a total jail population of 751,800. I think that is way low.
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Well, if there are 300M people, 715 out of 100000 comes to 2,145,000.

That number would be 35% of the prison population. About twice their representation among the races of the nation.

The number 'seems' way low because of an assumption of there being far more in prison than is actual.
 
Damocles said:
Well, if there are 300M people, 715 out of 100000 comes to 2,145,000.

That number would be 35% of the prison population. About twice their representation among the races of the nation.

The number 'seems' way low because of an assumption of there being far more in prison than is actual.
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I'm not sure what the first thing you wrote means in bold above.

The chart indicates that the total prison population for all races is 751,000 inmates. That is the number that is definitely low. From what I have read the total number of inmates is around 2.2 million.
 
Dungheap said:
I'm not sure what the first thing you wrote means in bold above.

The chart indicates that the total prison population for all races is 751,000 inmates. That is the number that is definitely low. From what I have read the total number of inmates is around 2.2 million.
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The statistics say that we have 715 people in prison out of every 100,000 people. I took 300,000,000 divided by 100,000 multiplied it by 715 to find out what the prison population would be. 2,145,000 is the answer.

Then I divided the answer into the reported number of prisoners who are black per the DOJ statistics which gives me the percentage of people who are black that are in prison. 35%.

And no, the chart indicates that we have 715 people in prison for Every 100,000. I just did the math to find out what the population must be based on the last census statistics pertaining to population.

I did use the wrong number though, I used your number for all of the population as the number of blacks.
 
Hmmm.... According to DOJ statistics in 2005 there were 433 prisoners per 100K in state Prisons, and only 55 per 100K in Federal prisons.

The incarceration rate of State and Federal prisoners
sentenced to more than 1 year was 488 per 100,000 U.S.
residents on June 30, 2005, up from 486 per 100,000
December 31, 2004. At midyear 2005, 10 States exceeded the
national rate led by Louisiana with 824 sentenced prisoners
per 100,000 State residents, Texas with 703, and Mississippi
with 682. Nine States had rates that were less than half of
the national rate including Maine (153), Minnesota and Rhode
Island (both 179), and New Hampshire (196).
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http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/pjim05.txt
 
Damocles said:
The statistics say that we have 715 people in prison out of every 100,000 people. I took 300,000,000 divided by 100,000 multiplied it by 715 to find out what the prison population would be. 2,145,000 is the answer.

Then I divided the answer into the reported number of prisoners who are black per the DOJ statistics which gives me the percentage of people who are black that are in prison. 35%.

And no, the chart indicates that we have 715 people in prison for Every 100,000. I just did the math to find out what the population must be based on the last census statistics pertaining to population.

I did use the wrong number though, I used your number for all of the population as the number of blacks.
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Different thread... I was using the chart from BAC's thread.
 
Damocles said:
The statistics say that we have 715 people in prison out of every 100,000 people. I took 300,000,000 divided by 100,000 multiplied it by 715 to find out what the prison population would be. 2,145,000 is the answer.

Then I divided the answer into the reported number of prisoners who are black per the DOJ statistics which gives me the percentage of people who are black that are in prison. 35%.

And no, the chart indicates that we have 715 people in prison for Every 100,000. I just did the math to find out what the population must be based on the last census statistics pertaining to population.

I did use the wrong number though, I used your number for all of the population as the number of blacks.
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I didn't see the per 100,000 indication on the DOJ stats page. My fault.
 
Dungheap said:
I didn't see the per 100,000 indication on the DOJ stats page. My fault.
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Not your fault, that statistic appears to be exaggerated. In 2005 the DOJ reported 488 per 100K.

I was using the chart from BAC's post from 'nationmaster'. I do not know where they get those statistics.
 
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