Mass Incarceration: Myth or Fact
Releasing drug offenders will end mass incarceration
Myth: 4/5 incarcerated individuals are serving time for a charge other than a drug offense.
True or False:
Providing education programs in prisons will save taxpayers money
True. For every dollar spent on prison education programs, taxpayers are estimated to save $4-5 that would have gone towards incarceration.
Where are the majority of incarcerated individuals currently held in the U.S?
a. state prisons
b. local jails
c. federal prisons and jails
a. state prisons
State prisons hold roughly 1,200,000 individuals, vs. around 600,000 in local jails and 225,000 in federal prisons and jails. Lower percentages of individuals are also held in immigration detention, territorial prisons, alongside others.
Black and white individuals sell drugs at a similar rate, but black individuals are __ times more likely to be arrested.
a. 1.5
b. 2.7
c. 5
d. 7.3
Private prisons are corrupt and the main contributor to mass incarceration
Roughly ___% of incarcerated individuals do not hold a high school diploma
a. 15
b. 40
c. 65
The majority of individuals held in state prisons have been convicted of __________.
a. property offenses
b. violent offenses
c. drug offenses
b. violent offenses.
Roughly 700,000 individuals in state prisons have been convicted of violent crimes vs. 225,000 for property offenses, 190,000 for drug offenses, and 150,000 for other crimes.
a. tripled
b. doubled
c. quadrupled
a. tripled
Roughly .8% of the population was incarcerated in 1984, rising to over 3% in 2007.
Victims of crimes encourage less incarceration.
Formerly incarcerated individuals who participated in an educational opportunity in prison are __% less likely to return to prison than those who hadn't.
a. 43
b. 25
c. 72
d. 10
a. 43
Individuals who did not complete high school are rearrested at a rate of 60.4%, compared to 19.1% of individuals who completed a college degree.
__% of people held in jails are not convicted of any crimes.
a. 25
b. 10
c. 75
d. 40
The U.S incarcerates individuals at __ times the rate among OECD( Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.
a. 2
b. 3
c. 10
d. 5
Prisons provide companies with a huge slave labor force
Myth: less than 1% of incarcerated individuals are employed by private companies, which is regulated and requires pay of at least minimum wage.
However, many prisons rely on the labor of incarcerated individuals for their day to day operations and pay them very little to nothing.
Source: prisonpolicy.org
From 1979 to 2013, spending on prisons and jails increased at _ times the rate of public education.
a. 2
b. 5
c. 3
c. 3
The state of Maryland spends around $37,000 per incarcerated person per year, vs $12,000 per pre-k-12 student per year
Roughly ____ youth are incarcerated are locked up for offenses that don't even count as crimes.
a. 8000
b. 100
c. 20000
d. 3000
While black individuals are only 13% of the population, they represent __% of the incarcerated.
a. 20
b. 65
c. 30
d. 15
c. 30
This compares to white people who are 64% of population but only 30% of those incarcerated.
People who served time for violent or sexual offenses are least likely to be rearrested.
Fact: those convicted of violent or sexual offenses have recidivism rates that are 20% lower than other offenders
Source: prisonpolicy.org
___ % of state prisons provided college-level courses in 2016
a. 10
b. 68
c. 35
d. 90
Almost ____ people are confined for immigration reasons.
a. 10000
b. 25000
c. 70000
d. 150000
The mass incarceration system costs the US roughly $__ billion annually.
a. 10
b. 80
c. 30
d. 50