2001-2005
Day 81 2001: Black Children Five Times More Likely Than White Youth to Be Incarcerated (Even Though They Do Not Commit More Crimes) From the Equal Justice Initiative: Even as the number of children incarcerated in juvenile facilities continues to decline nationwide, the racial disparity in youth incarceration has grown, according to data from the Department of Justice. As of 2015, African American youth were five times as likely as white youth to be detained or committed to youth facilities. A new fact sheet from the Sentencing Project shows that the racial disparity in youth incarceration has increased since 2001, when Black youth were four times as likely as whites to be incarcerated. From 2001 to 2015, juvenile incarceration fell by 54 percent, but white youth incarceration has declined faster than that of Black youth. The national rate of youth incarceration was 152 per 100,000; the Black youth placement rate was 433 per 100,000, compared to 86 per 100,000 for white youth. Ov...