US map colored statewise to demonstrate variation in racial composition of the state imprisonment rate of three groups.  This is based on a Sentencing Project report of data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005.  To visualize variation between states, the data is normalized to the national imprisonment rate: 2.290% for blacks, 0.742 for Hispanics, and 0.412% for whites.  On the map, zero imprisonment would appear in black [0 of 255].  Imprisonment of all racial groups at the national average rate appears gray [110 of 255], as is depicted for Wyoming and New Mexico for which the Sentencing Project could not obtain useful ethnic data. (white asterisks)  The maximum reported regional variation is for imprisonment of Hispanics in Pennsylvania, indicated by 255 of 255 green color value.  Imprisonment of blacks is represented by the red color value, Hispanics by the green color value, and whites by the blue color value.  Useful ethnic data for Hispanics could not be obtained in states marked by green asterisks, so the green color value for these is colored at the national average level.  The authors of the original report caution that states reporting very low rates of Hispanic imprisonment may be undercounting this ethnicity.
The original data used to create this figure:
State	        White	Black	Hispanic
Alabama	        542	1916	NOT GIVEN
Alaska	        500	2163	380
Arizona	        590	3294	1075
Arkansas	478	1846	288
California	460	2992	782
Colorado	525	3491	1042
Connecticut	211	2532	1401
Delaware	396	2517	683
DC	         56	1065	267
Florida	        588	2615	382
Georgia	        623	2068	576
Hawaii	        453	851	185
Idaho	        675	2869	1654
Illinois	223	2020	415
Indiana	        463	2526	579
Iowa	        309	4200	764
Kansas	        443	3096	NOT GIVEN
Kentucky	561	2793	757
Louisiana	523	2452	244
Maine	        262	1992	NOT GIVEN
Maryland	288	1579	NOT GIVEN
Massachusetts	201	1635	1229
Michigan	412	2262	397
Minnesota	212	1937	NOT GIVEN
Mississippi	503	1742	611
Missouri	487	2556	587
Montana	        433	3569	846
Nebraska	290	2418	739
Nevada	        627	2916	621
New Hampshire	289	2666	1063
New Jersey	190	2352	630
New York	174	1627	778
North Carolina	320	1727	NOT GIVEN
North Dakota	267	2683	848
Ohio	        344	2196	613
Oklahoma	740	3252	832
Oregon	        502	2930	573
Pennsylvania	305	2792	1714
Rhode Island	191	1838	631
South Carolina	415	1856	476
South Dakota	470	4710	NOT GIVEN
Tennessee	487	2006	561
Texas	        667	3162	830
Utah	        392	3588	838
Vermont	        304	3797	NOT GIVEN
Virginia	396	2331	487
Washington	393	2522	527
West Virginia	392	2188	211
Wisconsin	415	4416	NOT GIVEN

Map based on Image:Blank US Map.svg, a blank map of the United States in scalable vector form. Original and variant were edited in Inkscape.
Blank_US_Map.svg
Blank_US_Map.svg: User:Theshibboleth