User:Skeedoh/United States incarceration rate

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Currently, the U.S. is at its highest rate of imprisonment in history, with young Black men experiencing the highest levels of incarceration. One out of every 15 people imprisoned across the world is a Black American incarcerated in the United States. A 2004 study reported that the majority of people sentenced to prison in the United States are Black, and almost one-third of Black men in their twenties are either on parole, on probation, or in prison. These disproportionate levels of imprisonment have made incarceration a normalized occurrence for African American communities. This has resulted in distrust from Black individuals towards aspects of the legal system such as police, courts, and heavy sentences. In 2011, more than 580,000 Black men and women were in state or federal prison. Black men and women are imprisoned at higher rates compared to all other age groups, with the highest rate being Black men aged 25 to 39. In 2001, almost 17% of Black men had previously been imprisoned in comparison to 2.6% of White men. By the end of 2002, of the two million inmates of the U.S. incarceration system, Black men surpassed the number of White men (586,700 to 436,800 respectively of inmates with sentences more than one year). Becky Petit and Carmen Gutierrez performed a study, published on October 29, 2018, on the incarceration rate of young African Americans, noting that 48.9% of men arrested by age 23 (born 1980-1984), were African American, while 37.9% were white.

A significant contributing factor to these figures is the racially and economically segregated neighborhoods that account for the majority of the Black prison population. These neighborhoods are normally impoverished and possess a high minority population. For example, as many as one in eight adult males who inhabit these urban areas is sent to prison each year, and one in four of these men is in prison on any given day. A 1992 study revealed that 72% of all New York State's prisoners came from only 7 of New York City's 55 community districts. Upon release from prison, the most common area that African Americans return to is a poor, impoverished neighborhood.

Finding employment post-release is a significant struggle for African Americans. American sociologist Devah Pager performed a study to prove this. She assembled pairs of fake job seekers to find jobs with résumés that portrayed the applicant had a criminal record. The findings indicated that the presence of a criminal record reduced callbacks by approximately 50%. Hispanic women with a prison record fared most favorably in receiving a phone call back from potential employers, while African American women had modest results, with white women receiving the poorest results, obtaining the lowest probability of receiving a phone call from a potential employer.

Unemployment rates impacted the body of African Americans that would take up prisons. The young African Americans who have found themselves as unemployed are found to be incarcerated at a higher rate than unemployed white people, as a result of drug usage. The usage of these drugs can be attributed to the lack of social programs young African Americans were aided with upon ending up without a job. As a result, the amount of crime and drug usage among young African Americans would cause an increase in incarceration rates.