Violent Crime

• Homicide rate per 100,000 population, 1973: 9.4
  
• Increase in prison population, 1980-1994: 1,000,000
  
• Homicide rate per 100,000 population, 1993: 9.3
  
• Percent change in homicide rate for men aged 15-19, 1985-1991: +154
  
• Percent change in the number of inmates, 1980-1991: +150
  
• Percent change in serious violent crime rate, 1980-1991: -4
  
• Proportion of arrests that are for violent offenses: 1/7
  
• Proportion of arrests that are for drug offenses: 1/12
  
• Proportion of arrests that are for a violent crime resulting in injury: 1/33
  
• Proportion of violent crime victims who go to an emergency room for their injury: 1/12
  
• Proportion of murder victims killed by a family member or someone they knew: 8/10
  
• Percent of murders where the killer was a "stranger" to the victim, 1976: 13.8
  
• Percent of murders where the killer was a "stranger" to the victim, 1993: 14.0
  
• Percent of the increase in prison population accounted for by nonviolent offenders, 1980-1993: 84
  
• Percent of federal prisoner population incarcerated for nonviolent crimes: 89
  
• Percent of new admissions to federal prisons that are for nonviolent crimes: 94
  
• Percent of Texas prison admissions for nonviolent offenses: 77
  
• Percent of murder, rape, robbery and assault known to police committed by people on parole or probation: 4
  
• Percent of U.S. public who say they feel unsafe walking in their own area after dark: 41
  
• Risk of serious violent crime for a white woman aged 65 or older compared to a Black male teenager: 1:65
  

Drugs

• Blacks as percent of population: 12
  
• Blacks as percent of all monthly drug users: 13
  
• Blacks as percent of drug possession convictions: 55
  
• Blacks as percent of drug possession prison sentences: 74
  
• Percent change in Black arrests for drug offenses, 1985-1989: +115
  
• Percent change in white arrests for drug offenses, 1985-1989: +27
  
• Percent of state prisoner population convicted on drug charges, 1979: 6
  
• Percent of state prisoner population convicted on drug charges, 1991: 21
  
• Percent of Federal prisoner population convicted on drug charges, 1979: 25
  
• Percent of Federal prisoner population convicted on drug charges, 1991: 58
  
• Amount of marijuana needed to trigger a federal 5-year mandatory minimum sentence: 100 kilos
  
• Amount of powder cocaine needed to trigger a federal 5-year mandatory minimum sentence: 500 grams
  
• Amount of crack cocaine needed to trigger a federal 5-year mandatory minimum sentence: 5 grams
  
• Blacks as percent of those arrested on crack charges: about 90
  
• Whites as percent of those arrested on powder cocaine charges: 75
  
• Percent of new prison admissions for drug offenses that are Black or Hispanic: 90
  
• Blacks as percent of Columbus, OH population: 8
  
• Blacks as percent of Columbus, OH drug arrests: 90
  
• Blacks as percent of those Baltimore arrests for "drug abuse violations" (1991): 85.7
  
• Blacks as percent of Baltimore city population (1990): 59.2
  

Prisoners

• Total number of prison and jail inmates, 1994: 1,549,584
  
• Percent change in prison and jail population, 1980-1994: 212.7
  
• Number of people of probation or parole, 1993: 2,600,000
  
• U.S. Black incarceration rate per 100,000 population, 1992-1993: 1,947
  
• U.S. white incarceration rate per 100,000 population, 1992-1993: 306
  
• Japanese rate of incarceration per 100,000 population, 1992-1993: 36
  
• Hispanic incarceration rate per 100,000 population in 1980: 163
  
• Hispanic incarceration rate per 100,000 population in 1993: 529
  
• Proportion of Alaskan prison population that is "native": 1/3
  
• Proportion of Alaskan population that is "native": 1/6
  
• Estimated lifetime risk of arrest for urban Black men, in percent: 80
  
• Blacks as percent of Illinois population: 15
  
• Blacks as percent of Illinois state prisoners: 63
  
• Percent of Baltimore Black men age 18-35 under criminal justice supervision (1992): 56
  
• Percent of Washington, D.C. Black men age 18-35 under criminal justice supervision (1992): 42
  
• Number of Black men who would be in prison in 2020 if present annual rates of increase continue: 4,500,000
  
• Percent of adult population under some form of correctional supervision: 2.7
  
• Number of people per year admitted to "locked facilities": 11,000,000
  
• Number of days it takes to lock up enough people to fill the New Orlean Superdome: 2
  
• Proportion of Black men aged 18-34 admitted to prison or jail per year (1994 est.): 1/3
  
• Proportion of Black men aged 18-34 incarcerated on any one day (1994 est.): 1/10
  
• Proportion of all men with a criminal record on file (est.): 1/4
  
• Number of new prisons built in the U.S. since 1980: 600+
  
• Number of prisoners with tuberculosis, 1992: 48,000
  
• Estimated ratio of AIDS infection rate in prisons to rate in outside population: 14:1
  
• Number of Mississippi prisoners who had individual air conditioners when the state passed a law banning individual air conditioners for prisoners: 0
  

Pigs, Judges, etc.

• Chance of receiving death sentences for people convicted of killing whites compared to people convicted of killing Blacks: 11:1
  
• Ratio of Black to white "unfounded" arrest rates in Oakland, CA: 12:1
  
• Ratio of Black or Hispanic to white average bail for the same charge in Connecticut: 2:1
  
• Chance of being kept in jail instead of released after "public order" charges for young unemployed Black men versus young unemployed white men (in Florida): 3:1
  
• Latinos as proportion of those under probation in Florida: 1/2
  
• Latinos as proportion of Florida population: 1/8
  
• Number of Florida probationers allowed to vote: 0
  
• Proportion of Blacks who told one large poll that police treat Blacks less fairly than whites: 3/4
  
• Number of U.S. citizens who have lost their voting privileges because of convictions: 4,000,000
  
• Number of Washington D.C. corrections staff convicted of serious crimes, 1989-1994: 50
  
• Amount New York City spent on police brutality lawsuits and settlements in five years: $87,000,000
  
• Proportion of law enforcement officers killed in 1993, compared to 1973: 1/2
  
• Weekly earnings of drug-dealing New York City pig known to snort cocaine off his dashboard: $8,000
  
• 1990 U.S. police budgets: $32,000,000,000
  
• Ratio of U.S. Department of Justice budget in 1992, compared to 1980: 4:1
  
• Percent change in the number of Federal prosecutors, 1980-1992: +140
  
• Percent change in combined budgets for all prosecutors, 1979-1990: +230
  
• Percent change in the number of crime stories on major network TV news shows, 1991-1993: +186
  

WOMEN

• Number of women's prisons built in the 1960s: 7
  
• Number of women's prisons built in the 1980s: 34
  
• Number of women in prison, 1980: 12,331
  
• Number of women in prison, 1994: 64,403
  
• Proportion of Black women aged 18-29 under criminal justice control (1989): 1/37
  
• Proportion of Latino women aged 18-29 under criminal justice control (1989): 1/56
  
• Proportion of white women aged 18-29 under criminal justice control (1989): 1/100
  
• Percent change in number of women arrested, 1984-1993: 37
  
• Percent change in number of women in prison, 1984-1993: 181
  
• Percent of California women admitted to prison for violent crime convictions, 1982: 32.7
  
• Percent of California women admitted to prison for violent crime convictions, 1992: 16
  
• Proportion of women in prison for drug offenses, 1979: 1/10
  
• Proportion of women in prison for drug offenses, 1986: 1/8
  
• Proportion of women in prison for drug offenses, 1991: 1/3
  
• Percent of women in prison who have children: 78
  
• Percent of women state prisoners who receive visits from minor children: 9
  

Youth

• Percent of juvenile prison population incarcerated for nonviolent crimes: 85
  
• Ratio of Black to white juveniles arrested for drug sales in Baltimore, 1981: 6:1
  
• Ratio of Black to white juveniles arrested for drug sales in Baltimore, 1991: 100:1
  
• Change in percent of white juveniles placed in detention centers, 1984-1988: -2
  
• Change in percent of Black juveniles placed in detention centers, 1984-1988: +269
  
• Percent of the 65,000 incarcerated juveniles who commit "suicidal acts" each year: 17
  
• Homicide rate among Black youths, per 100,000: 34.9
  
• Homicide rate among white youths, per 100,000: 4.4
  
• Percent of juvenile arrests that are for violent crimes: 6
  
• Percent of juvenile arrests that are for "forcible rape" or murder: 0.4
  
• Percent of juvenile property crime cases waived to adult court: 45
  
• Percent of juvenile violent crime cases waived to adult court: 34
  
• Percent of juvenile drug cases waived to adult court: 12
  
• Change in rate of waiving juvenile drug cases to adult court, 1987-1991: +152
  
• Cost of incarcerating youth, per year: $3,200,000,000
  
• Number of hours some Idaho 13-year-olds were forced to stand with their noses pressed against a wall, for "talking" (per day): 16
  

Economics

• Average cost of incarceration per inmate per year: $22,000
  
• Ratio of increase in national corrections spending to increase in military spending over the last 20 years: 3:1
  
• Estimated 1996 percent increase in total prison appropriations: 13.3
  
• Average cost of prison construction, per cell: $54,000
  
• Amount spent on private security systems by individuals and businesses, per year: $65,000,000,000
  
• Range of estimates for the ratio of white collar crime to personal and household crime in terms of economic cost: 7:1 to 25:1
  
• Annual revenue of the private prison industry: $250,000,000
  
• Number of privately managed prisons: 88
  
• Number of prisoners in privately managed prisons in 1984: 2,500
  
• Number of prisoners in privately managed prisons in 1996, approximately: 50,000
  
• Proportion of growth rate of private prisons to growth rate of state prisons: 4:1
  
• Number of full-time corrections employees, 1992: 523,000
  
• Number of Fortune 500 companies that employ more than 523,000 people: 1
  
• What the unemployment rate of 5.9% would be if male prisoners were counted as part of the labor force: 7.5%
  
• Percent of Connecticut major felony defendants represented by public defenders: 75
  
• Percent of all justice system money spent on police: 43
  
• Percent of all justice system money spent on prisons: 34
  
• Percent of all justice system money spent on courts: 13
  
• Percent of all justice system money spent on prosecutors: 8
  
• Percent of all justice system money spent on public defenders: 2
  
• Amount of money Virginia prisoners are given when they are released, in addition to a bus ticket: $25
  

California

• Ratio of California prison spending to higher education spending 15 years ago: 1:6
  
• Ratio of California prison spending to higher education spending in 1994: 1:1
  
• Average salary for a California corrections officer: $55,000
  
• Number of members of California's Correctional Peace Officers Association: 23,000
  
• Rank of California's Correctional Peace Officers Association among all California campaign contributors: 2
  
• Percent change in California prison population, 1980-1993: +400
  
• Percent of those additional cells filled with people convicted of violent crimes: 27
  
• Percent of second and third felony convictions in Los Angeles County, under "three strikes" law, that were for murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, or carjacking, in 1994: 4
  
• Percent change in chance of going to jail for a drug arrest in California in 1992, compared to 1980: +500
  
• Cost of life incarceration for average California prisoner: $1,500,000
  
• Rand Corporation's estimate of the annual cost of California's "three strikes" law: $4,500,000,000-6,500,000,000
  
• California's annual prison system budget, not counting construction of new prisons: $3,600,000,000
  
• Proportion of California inmates sentenced on drug offenses who are Black: 7/10
  
• Proportion of California prison drug treatment slots allocated to whites: 2/3
  
• Number of officers who participated in the "Operation Sunrise" ghetto-sweep to capture oppressed-nation gang members in Los Angeles: 800
  
• Number of "Operation Sunrise" arrests: 63
  
• Number of "Operation Sunrise" arrests that led to violent felony charges: 1