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The State of the Dream 2004: Enduring Disparities in Black and White

Imprisonment

"So I must return to the valey. . . a valley filled with millions of people who because of economic deprivation and social isolation, have lost hope, and see life as a long and desolate corridor with no exit sign. . . I must return to the valley all over the South and in the big cities of the North -- a valley filled with millions of our white and Negro brothers who are smoldering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society."

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Speech in Atlanta, Georgia, January 27, 1965

• Rates of incarceration have grown for both Blacks and whites. From 1974 to 2001, the percentage of Black men who had ever been in state or federal prison rose from 8.7% to 16.6%. The percentage of white men who had been in prison grew from 1.4% to 2.6%. During the same period, the percentage of black women who had ever been in state or federal prison rose from 0.6% to 1.7% while the rate for white women rose from 0.1% to 0.3%.

• African Americans are about six times as likely as whites to have been imprisoned at some point in their lives. This gap between Black and white men is growing.

• One out of three Black males born in 2001 will be imprisoned at some point in their lifetime if current trends continue. That's up from one out of eleven in 1974. By comparison, 5.9% of white males born in 2001, 5.6% of Black females, and 0.9% of white females have a lifetime chance of imprisonment.

[image:] Graph with the following text:
Lifetime Chance Going to Prison
Males Born in 1974 and 2001
Males Born in 1974
White 2.2%
Black 13.4%
Males Born in 2001
White 5.9%
Black 32.2%
Years to Parity: 190
Parity Year: 2191

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001, August, 2003. See Appendix for Years to Parity calculation.

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20 United for a Fair Economy • Racial Wealth Divide Project