Incarceration of People of Color

"Mass arrests and incarceration of people of color – largely due to drug law violations⁴⁶ – have hobbled families and communities by stigmatizing and removing substantial numbers of men and women. In the late 1990s, nearly one in three African-American men aged 20-29 were under criminal justice supervision, ⁴⁷ while more than two out of five had been incarcerated – substantially more than had been incarcerated a decade earlier and orders of magnitudes higher than that for the general population.⁴⁸ Today, 1 in 15 African-American children and 1 in 42 Latino children have a parent in prison, compared to 1 in 111 white children.⁴⁹ In some areas, a large majority of African-American men – 55 percent in Chicago, for example⁵⁰ – are labeled felons for life, and, as a result, may be prevented from voting and accessing public housing, student loans and other public assistance."