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The Vera Institute of Justice released a new report that reveals just how much the prison population has decreased in dozens of states. According to them, the incarceration rate has dropped 15% since 2008. Additionally...
Tens of thousands fewer are in prison - a 1.3% decrease - which is a change in the right direction.
However, the prison population is still well over a million people and the U.S. is still BOOMING when it comes to locking people up. What’s that mean for Black people?
It means that things got better, but for us they’re still WORSE than our counterparts.
Black men’s imprisonment decreased by 31% in the last ten years and Black women’s has decreased by 53% in the last couple of decades, but that doesn’t erase the standing disparity. We’re STILL more likely to be imprisoned!
Oklahoma has the highest incarceration rate in the WORLD. That’s right. Not just the whole U.S., but the WORLD.
It’s ahead of places like Iran, China, and Russia, which the U.S. often criticizes for being less free. Meanwhile, we’re being incarcerated here at ridiculous rates.
We should celebrate positive reforms and a decreasing prison population for sure, but let’s remember that racism is still very much a part of the system itself. A racist criminal justice system that locks up less people is still a problem!