Black Demographics Health and Crime

Incarceration

Blacks were nearly 5 times more likely than whites, nearly 3 times more likely than Hispanics, and over 8 times more likely than persons of other races to have been in jail.

An estimated 13% of black males in their late twenties in prison or jail in 2004. When total incarceration rates are estimated separately by age group, black males in their twenties and thirties are found to have high rates relative to other groups.

Among the more than 2.1 million offenders incarcerated on June 30, 2004, an estimated 576,600 were black males between ages 20 and 39. Among males age 25 to 29, 12.6% of blacks were in prison or

jail, compared to 3.6% of Hispanics and about 1.7% of whites. Although incarceration rates drop with age, the percentage of black males age 45 to 54 in prison or jail in 2004 was an estimated 4.5% more than twice the highest rate (1.7%) among white males (age 30 to 34).

Gender, race, Hispanic origin, and conviction status of local jail inmates, midyear 1995, 2000, and 2003-04

Female incarceration rates, though significantly lower than male rates at every age, reveal similar racial and ethnic differences. Black females (with a prison and jail rate of 359 per 100,000) were 2½ times more likely than Hispanic females (143 per 100,000) and nearly 4½ times more likely than white females (81 per 100,000) to be incarcerated in 2004.

These differences among white, black, and Hispanic females were consistent across all age groups. Among black females, the rate was highest (993 per 100,000) among those age 35 to 39. This rate was more than 4 times higher than the rate among white females in this age group (238 per 100,000).

Number of inmates in State or Federal prisons and local jails, by gender, race, Hispanic origin, and age, June 30, 2004