How does race affect sentencing?

Blacks are more likely to be jailed pending trial, and therefore tend to receive harsher sentences; Whites are more likely to hire a private attorney than Latinos or blacks, and therefore receive a less severe sentence.

What are the causes of mass incarceration?

Although the war on drugs had sparked the significant incline of mass incarceration, there are three factors that sustain its impact: 1) over-policing in redlined and marginalized communities, 2) longer sentencing for minor crimes, and 3) endless restrictions after being released.

What is the relationship between incarceration and crime?

Specifically, a 1 percent increase in the prison population results in a 0.28 percent increase in the violent crime rate and a 0.17 percent increase in the property crime rate.

What is the relationship between poverty inequality and mass incarceration?

Recent research indicates that, if not for the rise in incarceration, the number of people in poverty would fall by as much as 20 percent.

What percent of black population is incarcerated?

The racial and ethnic makeup of U.S. prisons continues to look substantially different from the demographics of the country as a whole. In 2018, black Americans represented 33\% of the sentenced prison population, nearly triple their 12\% share of the U.S. adult population.

What are the causes of overcrowding in prisons?

Main Causes of Overcrowding and the Overuse of Imprisonment in the United States. The explosive growth of the U.S. jail and prison population since the 1970s is the inevitable consequence of more than four decades of “tough-on-crime” policies.

What are the conditions like in American prisons?

Prison Conditions Millions of Americans are incarcerated in overcrowded, violent, and inhumane jails and prisons that do not provide treatment, education, or rehabilitation. EJI is fighting for reforms that protect incarcerated people.

Why is EJI fighting for justice for the incarcerated?

Millions of Americans are incarcerated in overcrowded, violent, and inhumane jails and prisons that do not provide treatment, education, or rehabilitation. EJI is fighting for reforms that protect incarcerated people.

How many people are in prison in the United States?

Over the past 40 years, the number of people held in prisons and jails in the United States per capita has more than quadrupled, with the total number of people incarcerated now surpassing 2.3 million. 2 Since 1970, the U.S. prison population has risen 700\%, a rate that far outpaces that