Introduction

Throughout 2020, the climate of the United States has been stirred by the ever-intensifying battle against social injustice. Fighting social injustice in the forms of police brutality, xenophobia, and so much more, individuals have been fighting against the longstanding racist structures that serve as the foundation of our “society”. A structure that has for a long time been challenge for target minorities has been the prison system, which has adapted to target people of color ever since the War on Drugs and over/biased policing of certain communities. This assignment aims to analyze and expose patterns of inequality in the prison system.

Using incarceration collected by the Vera Institute, the variables I have chosen to are prison, admissions, and jail data across various races. In my data visualizations, I have chosen to focus on the differing impacts of incarcerations on both the White and Black races respectively.

Below are 5 relevant values of interest I collected from the raw incarceration data:

Total jail population rate for each race per year after 2000

Comparing the total jail population counts across each race per year after 2000, a relevant value I collected was that the year with the highest total Black jail population count was 2008 with a count of 299,261.

Highest single jail population count in Washington state for the year 2018

The highest single jail population count in Washington state for the year 2018 was 944.

Total prison admissions count for each race per year after 2000

Comparing the total prison admission counts across each race per year after 2000, a relevant value I collected was that the year with the highest total prison admission count was 2007 with a count of 244,880.

Total prison population rate for each race per year after 2000

Comparing the total prison population counts across each race per year after 2000, a relevant value I collected was that the year with the highest total Black prison population count was 2013 with a count of 501,201.

Ratio of total population aged 15-64 for each race per year after 2000

Comparing the ratios of each race among the total population, a relevant value I collected was that the year with the greatest Black population ratio was 2018 at 13.48 percent.

Trends Over Time Chart - Jail Population for Black Americans Every Year Since 2000

Why I chose this chart and what patterns I found:

The reason why I chose this chart is to see how the jail population count among the Black community has changed every year. I did this through a bar chart that shows a clear surge in total Black jail population between the years of 2005 and 2013. I also chose to fill this chart by region, allowing the viewer to further track these trends throughout the different regions. Doing this allowed me to see that the South and Midwest have generally maintained the highest jail populations count for Black Americans.

Variable Comparison Chart - Ratio of Total Racial Populations in Prison by Race

Why I chose this chart and what patterns I found:

The reason why I chose this chart was to look into the impact of the prison system on each race. The total jail or prison populations do not illustrate the complete picture, because the total White population of the United States much outnumbers the total Black population. The pattern that I found was that the prison system has a much greater impact on the Black population than the White population, as the ratio of the racial population in prison was much higher among the Black community.

Map - Ratio of Black Population in Prison by County, Washington State (2016)

Why I chose this map and what patterns I found:

The reason why I chose this map was to measure the impact of specific Black communities by the prison system. While Washington had relatively low percentages (.04% being the highest), I also tested Texas which had an up to 25% ratio. This means that 25% of the Black community was in prison. While this map does not go to show to the differential impacts of the prison system amongst races, it does highlight the communities that are most affected by the prison system. The reason I chose to design the map like I did was to provide a specific snapshot of Washington State and the Black communities of Washington State. The legend shows the counties that have the greatest percentage of Black community members in prison (although I am unable to name each specific county).