September 27, 2017|12:18 PM ET
JOSE OLIVARES
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.
“It’s important to realize the placement rate has reduced for all youth,” says Josh Rovner, the juvenile justice advocacy associate at The Sentencing Project. “In a way, this is a good news story and I don’t want people to lose sight of that.”
However, Rovner and other advocates for criminal justice reform are slow to praise the drop in numbers. A closer look reveals a disquieting element of the criminal justice system: a rise in the disparity between black youth incarceration and white youth incarceration.
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.
Read more at http://www.npr.org/2017/09/27/551864016/fewer-youths-incarcerated-but-gap-between-blacks-and-whites-worsens.
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