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Black incarceration rate in the US has declined over the past 16 years

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Robot Pants

Robot Pants

Member
nhlducks35 said:
Prob cuz they all get shot
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giphy.gif
 
diablos991

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
With all the ruckus I hear in the media I wouldn't have thought this was the case.

Definitely interesting to see the actual data. One interesting note is how white female incarceration rates are rising.
 
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Marauder Shields

Member
This is genuinly surprising to me given all the stuff I see getting posted on these forums. You'd think things were getting worse. I guess that's the danger of echo chambers.
 
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Two Words

Member
Marauder Shields said:
This is genuinly surprising to me given all the stuff I see getting posted on these forums. You'd think things were getting worse. I guess that's the danger of echo chambers.
Click to expand...

It's not that things are necessarily getting worse. It's that media attention is finally starting to focus on it more, and it should.
 
S

Sayter

Member
Two Words said:
I assume it is largely due to the slow decriminalization of certain drugs.
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Yep. Wisconsin has raised funding for public rehab centers. And here in Milwaukee they are starting to send more folks to them instead of jail. It gives people hope.
 
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marrec

Banned
diablos991 said:
With all the ruckus I hear in the media I wouldn't have thought this was the case.

Definitely interesting to see the actual data. One interesting note is how white female incarceration rates are rising.
Click to expand...

Mass Incarceration is still a huge problem for black Americans.
 
E

Enzom21

Member
Marauder Shields said:
This is genuinly surprising to me given all the stuff I see getting posted on these forums. You'd think things were getting worse. I guess that's the danger of echo chambers.
Click to expand...

There is still a massive issue with law enforcement and how they treat black people. Crime is at the lowest it's been in decades so of course there would be less incarceration.

Are you really trying to ignore the countless stories of police misconduct because less black people are being incarcerated?
 
D

dave is ok

aztek is ok
I think you guys severely overestimate the number of black people killed by police every year

(or underestimate the number of black people incarcerated)
 
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noshten

Member
The early 2000s was the highest rate of black incarceration rate ever, the prison population was also at a record high under Bush. Simply put years of regressive policies enacted via Nixon, Regean, Bush and Clinton culminated in record numbers of people ending up in jail - disproportionately black.
Criminal Justice system had simply expanded and was jailing a lot more people - to a degree at which even the prison industry has been unable to keep up with demand. Thankfully we've seen a shift since 2008 but it's still a huge issue that needs to be addressed.


U.S._incarceration_rates_1925_onwards.png
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Sayter said:
Yep. Wisconsin has raised funding for public rehab centers. And here in Milwaukee they are starting to send more folks to them instead of jail. It gives people hope.
Click to expand...

The Drug War was a major systematic reason to put blacks behind bars, now that white people are effected by rampant legal and illegal opiate use - suddenly the problem is getting addressed.
 
C

Cat Party

Member
dave is ok said:
I think you guys severely overestimate the number of black people killed by police every year

(or underestimate the number of black people incarcerated)
Click to expand...
I can't tell if those people are joking, honestly.

The drop in rates for black women is incredible, by the way. Really promising. Since rates for white people are actually going up, it's interesting to speculate as to the causes. Seems like law enforcement resources are being shifted out of urban environments to some extent.
 
M

marrec

Banned
Cat Party said:
Since rates for white people are actually going up, it's interesting to speculate as to the causes. Seems like law enforcement resources are being shifted out of urban environments to some extent.
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Increasing prevalence of heroin and opiate abuse maybe?
 
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theignoramus

Member
Nice to know the drug war and its community destroying consequences only elicits public sympathy and change when white communities experience drug epidemics.
 
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Bubba T

Member
The concept of the for-profit prison system is an interesting one. A system that makes money out of housing prisoners deemed unfit for society. You have legislation enacted that is "tough on crime", incarnating people for relatively minor (and major) offenses and nonviolent (and violent) crimes, handing out mandatory minimum sentences, and shipping them in droves to these places. The State can't handle holding the people they sentence to the pen so they they pay a private institution to do so.
 
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Dreams-Visions

Member
Las7 said:
The early 2000s was the highest rate of black incarceration rate ever, the prison population was also at a record high under Bush. Simply put years of regressive policies enacted via Nixon, Regean, Bush and Clinton culminated in record numbers of people ending up in jail - disproportionately black.
Criminal Justice system had simply expanded and was jailing a lot more people - to a degree at which even the prison industry has been unable to keep up with demand. Thankfully we've seen a shift since 2008 but it's still a huge issue that needs to be addressed.






The Drug War was a major systematic reason to put blacks behind bars, now that white people are effected by rampant legal and illegal opiate use - suddenly the problem is getting addressed.
Click to expand...

That graph barely makes this a story worth talking about.

Let's see that mountain drop to 600 before we start feeling better.
 
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Malyse

Member
Marauder Shields said:
This is genuinly surprising to me given all the stuff I see getting posted on these forums. You'd think things were getting worse. I guess that's the danger of echo chambers.
Click to expand...

....right.


dave is ok said:
I think you guys severely overestimate the number of black people killed by police every year

(or underestimate the number of black people incarcerated)
Click to expand...
Well in 2015 it was once every 29 hours. (to be precise once every 28 92/101 hours).
 
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noshten

Member
theignoramus said:
Nice to know the drug war and its community destroying consequences only elicits public sympathy and change when white communities experience drug epidemics.
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I fully agree with you but there is another aspect which is overlooked about the War on Drugs.
The propaganda wing, that made this issue of terrible criminal drug users(urban youth trying to corrupt the children. Anyone with relatives, friends, acquaintances who have been addicted - know that the last place you'd want them to end up is jail. It was always a racist war - with a bedrock of devastating communities so you appear tough on crime to your likely constituents.
With more information available and models like Portugal in recent years it's crystal fucking clear that the only way to address drug use - as a healthcare issue and not a criminal justice one. That addicts need to go into clinics and not jail. That these are the most vulnerable individuals and must be supported and not locked up.
When more people are unemployed, there is greater financial strain on families - drug use skyrockets.
drugs_fig2small.png

Reversing the propaganda that is equating addicts to criminals would be a huge win against the Drug War.
 
S

SecretDan

A mudslide of fun!
Gordon Shumway said:
Certainly a factor. That can't be denied.
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It is one of the smallest factors.

Last number I saw was roughly 1000 black people killed by police. While that is obviously way too high of a number, when looking at the bigger picture, I don't think it really accounts for a very large portion in the decrease of blacks being incarcerated. Certainly when it is not orders of magnitudes higher than previous years.
 
K

kirblar

Member
SecretDan said:
It is one of the smallest factors.

Last number I saw was roughly 1000 black people killed by police. While that is obviously way too high of a number, when looking at the bigger picture, I don't think it really accounts for a decrease in blacks being incarcerated. Certainly when it is not orders of magnitudes higher than previous years.
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That's the number for the total # of people killed in shootings, not the number of black people killed by police. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings/
 
B

Brakke

Banned
SecretDan said:
It is one of the smallest factors.

Last number I saw was roughly 1000 black people killed by police. While that is obviously way too high of a number, when looking at the bigger picture, I don't think it really accounts for a very large portion in the decrease of blacks being incarcerated. Certainly when it is not orders of magnitudes higher than previous years.
Click to expand...

1,000 black people over what time period? Last year it was like 250-300. Total people killed by police last year was about 1,000.

Compare to like half a million black inmates or something. Obviously people making that comparison are being flip.
 
M

Marauder Shields

Member
Enzom21 said:
There is still a massive issue with law enforcement and how they treat black people. Crime is at the lowest it's been in decades so of course there would be less incarceration.

Are you really trying to ignore the countless stories of police misconduct because less black people are being incarcerated?
Click to expand...

Nah I'm not saying that there aren't issues. I was just surprised by these stats given how many threads get posted here about blacks being targeted by law enforcement. Given that frequency, and the fact that I don't live in the US, I just assumed that things were getting worse, when in fact they seem to be getting better.
 
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plagiarize

Banned
That's good. Now lets keep this momentum going. I live somewhere mostly white, but the inmates at the jail I work at are mostly black. We've got a long way to go, but at least we're moving in the right direction.

Taking what media coverage this issue gets away, is only going to hurt things. So don't do it.

Marauder Shields said:
Nah I'm not saying that there aren't issues. I was just surprised by these stats given how many threads get posted here about blacks being targeted by law enforcement. Given that frequency, and the fact that I don't live in the US, I just assumed that things were getting worse, when in fact they seem to be getting better.
Click to expand...

You say better, but a more apt statement would be 'marginally less shitty'.
 
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