Black youth are 4x times more likely to be detained or committed to a juvenile detention facility as white counterparts, a new report from the Sentencing Project
Though youth incarceration declined over the past years, the gap between the number of Black, Native, Latino and white youth held in juvenile detention centers has only widened.
We go to The Sentencing Project for this week’s study, “Black Disparities in Youth Incarceration,” by Josh Rovner.
Black youth make up 41% of juvenile detention placements, despite Black youth only making up 15% of the U.S.’s total youth population.
In 2015, the rate of Black youth incarceration was five times white youth incarceration, it has since fallen to 4.4 times.
Racial disparities grew by over 10% in 11 states and declined by at least 10% in 23 states and the District of Columbia.
Black youth are at least 10 times as likely to be placed in juvenile detention in Connecticut, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
Racial disparity in youth incarceration has grown by at least 33% in South Carolina, Nebraska, Tennessee.
Racial disparity has decreased in youth incarceration by at least 33% in Indiana, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Nationally, Black youth placement rate was 315 per 100,000 compared to white youth placement rate of 72 per 100,000.
Read the whole report here.
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