We are using public data to compare imprisonment and arrest rates for different racial groups, separating these rates by type of crime. We have done some analyses comparing US states to each other, and have done a detailed county-level analysis of Wisconsin. Major findings:
- Wisconsin has very high black prison admission rates which rose steadily through the 1990s, while Wisconsin’s white incarceration rates rose modestly.
- A major source of the rise is increased probation and parole revocations, which rose for both races but more rapidly for blacks.
- Whites are primarily sentenced to prison for violent offenses and white prison admissions for violent offenses grew in the 1990s, while drug sentences actually declined somewhat.
- By the late 1990s, most black new prison sentences were for drug offenses. Black sentences for drug offenses rose in the 1990s while sentences for serious crimes declined.