This blog is run by students at Alexander Blewett III School of Law and concerns racial and social injustices surrounding the criminal justice system in the United States
“A riot is the language of the unheard.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Facts.
Black people are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate 5.1 times higher than their white counterparts. In 5 states (Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin), the disparity is greater than 10 to 1.
In twelve states, more than half of the prison population is Black: Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Maryland tops the nation; here Black people make up 72% of the prison population.
In Montana, Indigenous people represent roughly 7% of the State’s total population. Yet they make up a staggering 27% of the state’s total incarcerated population.
Criminal Injustice System 