A comparison of Alabama's prison population vs. the state's general demographics shows a disproportionate number of African-Americans are incarcerated there.
Alabama’s total population, according to 2010 U.S. Census data
compiled by the Prison Policy Initiative, was 4.785 million people. Of that total population, 67 percent were white. However, the total prison population was only comprised of 42 percent white people. On the other hand, the black community represented 26 percent of the total population in Alabama, but 54 percent of the total incarcerated population.
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The data also showed that 535 out of every 100,000 white people were incarcerated in one of the various types of correctional facilities in the state of Alabama including state and federal prisons, local jails, halfway houses, and other similar facilities.
Conversely, 1,788 out of every 100,000 African-Americans in the state were incarcerated in a correctional facility that year.
A rate of 767 out of every 100,000 Hispanic people were incarcerated in the state at that point, as well.
Statistics also show the median age of residents in the state of Alabama in 2010 was 37.9 years. Across all 29 of the prisons operated by the Alabama Department of Corrections, the average inmate age was 37 years old, slightly younger than the rest of the population in the state.
However, based on previous data, the inmate population appears to be getting older. In 1991, the average inmate age was 29.
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America's federal prison system by itself is larger than the total prison population of every nation in the world excluding China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, Thailand, and Iran.
In fact, if each state was treated as its own country and then compared to other countries around the world, 36 states and the District of Columbia would have incarceration rates higher than all other countries with a population of 500,000 people or more.
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