Imprisonment rates have declined across racial and ethnic groups – especially among black Americans
There were 1,501 black prisoners for every 100,000 black adults at the end of 2018, according to a new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the statistical agency of the U.S. Justice Department. That was down sharply from 2,261 black inmates per 100,000 black adults at the end of 2006, according to an earlier BJS study. These statistics only count inmates sentenced to more than a year in state or federal prison. They exclude inmates held in local jails and those sentenced to shorter periods of imprisonment.
Imprisonment rates have also declined for the two other major racial or ethnic groups tracked by BJS – Hispanic and white Americans – though not as much as among blacks. Between 2006 and 2018, the imprisonment rate fell 26% among Hispanics and 17% among whites.
While their rate of imprisonment has decreased the most in recent years, black Americans remain far more likely than their Hispanic and white counterparts to be in prison. The black imprisonment rate at the end of 2018 was nearly twice the rate among Hispanics (797 per 100,000) and more than five times the rate among whites (268 per 100,000).
Imprisonment rates have declined across racial and  | ethnic groups especially among black Americans  | Prisoners per 100,000 adults ages 18 and older in each group  | 2,261 0  | Black  | 1,501  | Hispanic  | 1,073  | 7977  | White  | 324 C  | 268  | '06  | '08  | '10  | 12  | '14  | '16  | '18  | Notes: Blacks and whites include those who report being only one race and ware  | non-Hispanic. Hispanics are of any race Prisoners are those sentenced to more  | than a year in state or federal prison.  | Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics.  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 