All around us there is evidence that racial inequality in the United States is a persistent and systemic issue. One place where it is easy to see the consequences of racial inequality is the private for-profit prison industry. Our system of mass incarceration falls most heavily on Black and Latino individuals and families.
Black and Latino people make up 30% of the USA population, showing the racial shift in the overall population. However more than 50% of the inmate population are Black and Latino. Black and Latino children are 2 to 7 times more likely to have a parent incarcerated than White children. Based on historical trends, nearly one third of Black men and one sixth of Latino men born in 2001 will serve time in prison. For black men, this is 5.5 times the rate of White men.
There is no debate that people of color disproportionately suffer at the hands of our criminal justice system generally, and even more so due to the private prison industry.
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