African American Prisoners

Rates of Imprisonment

According to the most recent figures, there are approximately 912 male state and federal prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, and 61 female [Page 19]inmates per 100,000. If these figures are then broken down by race, there are 3,437 African American men per 100,000 and 191 African American women per 100,000 locked up as compared to 450 white male and 35 white female inmates for every 100,000 residents. These figures mean that African American men are being incarcerated at a rate approximately eight times that of white men, and black women are confined at approximately five times that of white women. Though more men than women are in prison, African American women have been incarcerated at a greater rate than African American men during the previous two decades.

Further differentiations based on race and ethnicity can be made when age is also considered. For example, across the country an estimated 10% of all African American men ages 25 to 29 are in prison. In some jurisdictions, this figure is as high as 50%. Overall, an African American male has a 29% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life, as compared to a white male, who has a 4% chance, and a Latino male, who has a 16% chance.

History

Prior to the abolition of slavery in the United States, African Americans were rarely incarcerated in penitentiaries. Instead, punishment was administered to them on the slave plantations where they were imprisoned and controlled by their owners. When slavery was abolished, Jim Crow laws and the convict leasing system led to a rapid growth in the number of African Americans behind bars. Particularly in southern states where the majority of the black population was located, many African Americans were forcibly returned to work for former slave-owners as plantation owners leased offenders to pick cotton and perform other tasks.

As early as the 1890s, the convict lease system came under scrutiny because of accounts of brutal treatment of the inmate workers. Yet it was not until the 1930s that all states finally abolished this system—and made their governments the sole overseers of convict labor. Indeed, even in those states that officially did away with leasing, other structures grew to replace it that continued many of its racist traditions. For example, in many states, chain gangs—where convicts labor outdoors while chained to each other—partially replaced the leasing system. African Americans were once again over-represented among the members of the chain gangs. This method of punishment existed in many states until the 1960s. It was reinstated first in Alabama in 1995, quickly followed by Florida and Arizona. Despite public outcry from and litigation by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, this practice now exists in many other states as well.

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