Data geeks rejoice! I have been working on a popular education project about the prison industrial complex for months now.   As such, I am currently looking at a lot of historical data about incarceration and taking tons of notes.  I thought that some of you might be interested in a couple of charts outlining historical racial differences in incarceration since I have shared so much contemporary data over the past few weeks.  If folks are interested, over the coming days, I can share some detailed charts about incarceration in 1929 (start of the Great Depression), 1945 (the end of World War II) and 1964 (the heart of the black freedom struggle). Leave a comment.

Please note that these charts are based on documented information from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.  The Bureau has created a set of “estimated” numbers as well because some of the state documentation was unavailable or inaccessible.  So the first chart relies on the BJS’s estimates based on the best available documentation that state governments collected at the time.  The second more detailed chart is based solely on documentation that was provided by jurisdictions at the time.  As such, those tallies actually undercount the numbers of prisoners.  Nevertheless they are interesting to look at and to compare to our most recent numbers.  By any measure, you can see how the United States has become over time a prison nation.

You might find it interesting as you look at the chart below to notice how blacks outnumber whites as prisoners in the southern states of Maryland, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia.

For fun, click here to see current data about state prison populations.   For example, in 2009, Illinois had 45,161 prisoners.  In 1926, Illinois had 1,728 prisoners.  Seems quaint doesn’t it?  Hey, some people get excited about winning a trip to Bermuda, I get psyched about data.  To each her own…

Note: The white U.S. total includes Mexicans, but the Federal and State totals for whites exclude Mexicans.  The “other races” U.S. total excludes Mexicans, but the Federal and State totals for “other races” include Mexicans.