Race and Imprisonment in Texas
April, 2005
Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Chair
The Justice Policy Institute using research from the National Council of La Raza and the Steward Research Group has issued a new report, “Race and Imprisonment in Texas: The disparate incarceration of Latinos and African Americans in the Lone Star State.” Here are some of the highlights.
* While Latinos and African-Americans make up only 40% of Texans, they made up 70% of inmates admitted to Texas prisons during fiscal year 2002.
* African-Americans are incarcerated at 5 times the rate of whites in Texas.
* 21% of the prison population is incarcerated for drug law violations, up from 8% in 1980.
* African-Americans and whites use and become dependent on drugs at similar rates, but incarceration rates are quite different.
* The increase in admissions to prisons for drug law violations was 7 times greater for African-Americans of all ages than for whites between 1986 and 1999. The admission rate for drug law violations for African-Americans ages 15-29 rose by 360% (from 95 to 437 per 100,000) while the admission rate for whites of the same ages declined by 9% (from 46 to 42 per100,000).
* There are more African-American men in prison in Texas (66,300) than in the higher education system (40,800).
* Nearly twice as many African-American men in their early 30s have prison records (22%) than Bachelors degrees (12%).
* Lost economic productivity due to incarceration in the African-American community exceeds $1 billion dollars a year.
* Latinos are incarcerated at twice the rate of whites in Texas.
* Latinos have the same rate of alcohol related traffic accidents as others, yet 2 in 5 Texas prisoners incarcerated for DWI are Latino.
* The current Texas criminal justice budget is $2.5 billion.
* $183 million could be saved annually through investing in drug treatment programs over incarceration. Better utilizing such programs instead of county jails would result in significant savings for counties, Harris-$1,284,000, Dallas- $1,240,000, Bexar-$ 893,991, Travis-$359,765.
The full report can be read at http://www.justicepolicy.org/