Incarceration Inequities

Incarceration Inequities

• Illiteracy and crime are connected. The Department of Justice states, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure. Over 70% of inmates in America’s prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.”

• African Americans are disproportionately affected by mass incarceration and criminal justice policies, which can have lasting economic impacts on individuals and their families.

• Sentencing Disparities: African Americans often receive harsher sentences than white individuals for the same crimes, reflecting racial biases within the judicial system.

• Black Americans are incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of white Americans. Nationally, one in 81 Black adults is serving time in state prison​ (The Sentencing Project)​.

• In 12 states, more than half the prison population is Black, including states like Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia​ (The Sentencing Project)​.