Week 11 Material - Mass incarceration

What time period does the report chart for the U.S. state and federal prison population?

From 1925 to 2022

What is the approximate proportion of people in U.S. state and federal prisons who are people of colour (as of 2022)?

Nearly 7 in 10 people in prison are people of colour.

What was the lifetime likelihood of imprisonment for a Black man born in 2001, according to the report?

One in five

How has the offense-type composition in state prisons changed from 1970 to 2022?

In 2022, ~63% of people sentenced to state prison were convicted of a violent crime, compared to ~30% in 1970

What offence type constitutes nearly half of federal prison sentences as of 2022?

Drug offences (~46%)

What is the growth factor for women in state and federal prisons from the start of the mass incarceration era to the high point (~2015)?

Women’s prison population grew by more than 17 times the 1970 level

What proportion of people in U.S. prison are serving a life sentence or equivalent long-term sentence?

About one in seven imprisoned people are serving a life sentence

Which laws/policy changes are identified in the report as contributing to the dramatic growth in incarceration for drug offences at the federal level?

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (creating federal sentencing guidelines) and the Anti‑Drug Abuse Act of 1986 (imposing mandatory minimums for drugs such as crack vs powder cocaine)

What disparity existed in average federal drug sentences for Black vs. white individuals after the Anti-Drug Abuse Act was passed?

Four years after the law, the average federal drug sentence for Black people was 49% higher than for whites (up from an 11% gap before the law)

What major sentencing reform reduced the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing and when?

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the sentencing disparity from 100:1 to 18:1; and later the First Step Act (2018-19) made some of it retroactive

what are 3 facts from this article?

1. As of 2022, nearly 7 in 10 people in U.S. state and federal prisons were people of color, showing major racial disparities in incarceration rates

2. A Black man born in 2001 has a 1 in 5 chance of being imprisoned during his lifetime — compared to 1 in 17 for white me

3. About one in seven people in U.S. prisons are serving life sentences or equivalent long-term sentences