Fewer Youths Incarcerated, But Gap Between Blacks And Whites Worsens

[Sunlei]

Recent numbers released by the Justice Department show a drop in overall youth incarceration rates in the United States. But a closer look at the data shows a widening gap between black and white youth confinement. Criminal justice reform advocates say a heightened police presence in communities of color — despite little difference in crime rates between black and white youths — is to blame.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the U.S. has only 5 percent of the world's population, but more than 20 percent of the world's prison population. Justice Department data from 2015 shows there has been a 54 percent drop in overall youth incarceration rates since 2001. In 2015, 152 of 100,000 youths were incarcerated in the U.S. — a drop from 2001, when 334 of 100,000 youths were behind bars. The DOJ classifies a youth as anyone younger than 21.

The Sentencing Project released a fact sheet analyzing the Justice Department data since the start of the century. In 2001, black children were four times more likely to be incarcerated than white children. But in 2015, black children were five times more likely than white children to be incarcerated.

"A kid acting out in a school with no police officers gets treated differently than a kid acting out in a school that's heavily policed," Ofer says. "In the former, it may just lead to a walk to the principal's office. In the latter, it leads to a walk to your local police precinct."

http://www.npr.org/2017/09/27/551864016/fewer-youths-incarcerated-but-gap-between-blacks-and-whites-worsens?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20170927

[Igel]

1. They should have also included information on length of sentence.

If black youth are incarcerated for longer that would also add to the difference in the numbers residing in juvenile penal facilities.

(That's worded strangely because "were incarcerated" and most of the other expressions used are ambiguous: They're not talking about the number who are sentenced each year, they're talking about a headcount of those in the facilities. I doubt that could account for the total difference, but it might account for some and would constitute, in itself, another aspect of the injustice.)

[Abouttime]

2. Fundamentally unfair and rascist

There should be racial parity nationwide in our jails.
The fact that young black men are three times more likely to be incarcerated than their white peers speaks volumes to the inequalities and white privilege endemic in our society.
The national anthem protests need to expand until white republican rascists finally feel the pressure to change.

[Sunlei]

3. they call it "Heavy policing".