Twitter discussions reflect upon mass incarceration numbers
Our briefing on the new Bureau of Justice Statistics numbers spark discussion on Twitter.
by Catherine Cain, September 18, 2014
On Tuesday, the Prison Policy Initiative released a briefing on the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ national update for 2013, Prisoners in 2013. PPI’s briefing highlighted continuing racial disparities within the prison system and record high prison populations in 14 U.S. states. It also showed that, after three years of decline, the total prison population has increased and disproved any relationship between state crime rates and incarceration rates. After posting some of these highlights on Twitter, we received a variety of excited responses and more twitter traffic than we’ve seen since June.
New BJS figures show that #massincarceration is getting bigger. PPI Analysis: http://t.co/RHXBde8VPV
— Prison Policy Init. (@PrisonPolicy) September 16, 2014
Here is what a few users had to say:
Liam Johnston succintly tweets:
Prison admissions up & releases down in 2013 means US prison population grew for 1st time in 3 yrs. http://t.co/7P2aOvtuHM via @PrisonPolicy
— Liam Johnston (@liamdnoit) September 16, 2014
PPI supporter and board member Heather Ann Thompson:
Prison Policy Initiative's just-breaking report makes clear: despite the recent hype, we are NOT decarcerating! http://t.co/HpV8GNPh0C
— Heather Ann Thompson (@hthompsn) September 16, 2014
The Southern Poverty Law Center called our briefing a must read.
Must read analysis from @PrisonPolicy on new prison data http://t.co/2hxmnHOPQY pic.twitter.com/nBME1C73fk
— SPLC (@splcenter) September 16, 2014
Organizer with Milk Not Jails, Brenden Beck, also noted:
After three years of declines, the number of people incarcerated ticked up this year. Mass incarceration persists. http://t.co/IMEtiXWnM1
— Brenden Beck (@BrendenBeck) September 16, 2014
A lot of people pulled out their favorite findings from our briefing, including the racial disparity facts:
3% of Black males of all ages are currently incarcerated in state or federal prisons. 6X higher than white males http://t.co/CKBvQPxi1e
— Carol Fenton (@cfpdx) September 16, 2014
Racial disparities constitute the defining characteristic of our prison system.
#massincarceration #newjimcrow
http://t.co/5vsYI6PsvO
— Edwards Mason Law (@EdwardsMasonLaw) September 16, 2014
After learning that 14 individual U.S. states set record high prison populations this past year, many twitter followers also commented on how these individual states– as well as the U.S. as a whole –measure in comparison to other countries. Some commentators revisited statistics that the Prison Policy Initiative published last year, States of Incarceration: The Global Context:
Orleans Public Defender tweets:
Worth revisiting.. @TheLensNOLA: La incarcerates more people than any other state (or country) http://t.co/OUHDnZ3Hyl pic.twitter.com/9Kh7iR0Vqb
— Orleans Pub Defender (@OrleansDefender) September 16, 2014
State-level criminal justice policies = steadfast ranking of U.S. as world's "top incarcerator." http://t.co/ESKu9NlZVn @PrisonPolicy #NMPol
— Margaret Wright (@RaggedButWright) September 16, 2014
@Sifill_LDF @splcenter @aldotcom Alabama incarcerates black people at 3x rate of white people (535/1788 per 100,000). http://t.co/YNwBMIx0kz
— Brooks Ames (@BrooksAmes1) September 18, 2014
Once again, state w/ nation's biggest imprisonment rate by far is Louisiana – http://t.co/wRn4gOn7eQ
— John Gramlich (@johngramlich) September 16, 2014
Just keep scrolling. World incarceration rates if every U.S. state were a country http://t.co/YDkbWE9ScR via @PrisonPolicy and @JoshBegley
— Russell Ramsey (@RamseyIV) September 16, 2014
If California were a country, it would imprison a greater proportion of its people than any other (except the U.S.): http://t.co/NGvVVqkBX9
— Joe Yerardi (@JoeYerardi) September 16, 2014
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