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| Rights Group Cites U.S. for Minorities in Prison |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 03/11/2002 |
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A new study shows at least one in ten black men is behind bars in a dozen U.S. states, the Human Rights Watch advocacy group said recently. The study also found that blacks and Hispanics make up 62 percent of the incarcerated population in the United States as a whole but just 25 percent of the national population, the New York-based group said. 'This data demonstrates clearly the marked racial disparities in the U.S. prison population,' said Jamie Fellner, U.S. program director for Human Rights Watch. 'It is astonishing that in some states, one in ten black men is behind bars.' Between 10 and 15 percent of black men are incarcerated in a dozen states -- Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, it said. Black women are incarcerated at rates of ten to 35 times greater than the rates for white women in 15 states, it said. Those states are Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Hispanic youth are incarcerated at rates of seven to 17 times greater than those of white youth in Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, while black youth are incarcerated at rates of 12 to 25 times greater than those of white youth in Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, Montana and New Jersey, Human Rights watch said. The group said it did not analyze the reasons behind the statistics, saying factors such as crime rates, racial profiling, law enforcement priorities and mandatory minimum sentencing laws can play roles in incarceration rates. 'States need to look at their policies to figure out what is causing the problem,' Fellner said. Using data from the 2000 U.S. Census, the group said out of a total jail population of 1,976,019 in adult facilities, 1,239,946 are black or Latino. |
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