Under the administration of President Donald Trump, our nation’s black prison rate has dropped to the lowest numbers we’ve seen since 1995. This is a testament to the commander-in-chief’s commitment to much-needed criminal justice reform, as he pushed through the First Step Act. One of the purposes of that bill was to relieve the mandatory sentencing set by Joe Biden’s 1995 tough on crime bill called the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.
But it seems that Trump’s reforms have reversed the effects of Biden’s bill which ended up targeting minorities for extra prison time.
For blacks, the imprisonment rate in state and federal prisons is the lowest in 31 years, and for Hispanics, it is down 24%.
“Across the decade from 2009 to 2019, the imprisonment rate fell 29% among black residents, 24% among Hispanic residents and 12% among white residents. In 2019, the imprisonment rate of black residents was the lowest it has been in 30 years, since 1989,” said the report.
Explaining the rate, Justice said, “At year-end 2019, there were 1,096 sentenced black prisoners per 100,000 black residents, 525 sentenced Hispanic prisoners per 100,000 Hispanic residents and 214 sentenced white prisoners per 100,000 white residents in the U.S. Among sentenced state prisoners at year-end 2018 (the most recent data available), a larger percentage of black (62%) and Hispanic (62%) prisoners than white prisoners (48%) were serving time for a violent offense.”
For the sake of the report, the Justice Department counts individuals who are in prison for more than a single year.
The report itself did not give specific reasons for the drop in the imprisonment rate.
This is definitely a strong policy point for the president and he’s made sure to point to this part of his record on various occasions. And well he should, particularly as the Democratic Party continues to push the issue of race in an attempt to try and shut him and the GOP down in not only this election, but all the ones to come as well.
Cross-Posted from Flag and Cross
black prison rate
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