3/4 of Jail Deaths are People Not Even Convicted of Crime


A new report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics gives us shocking news regarding jail deaths in the United States. Over 70% of those who die in prison aren’t even convicted of a crime.

That’s right. A vast majority of those who die in prison are innocent citizens who did nothing wrong. According to AllGov:

A report (pdf) by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) shows that 73% of those who die in jail haven’t been convicted of a crime. In addition, 29% of those who die are African-American, more than double their percentage of the U.S. population at large.

Studies have shown that black people are more likely to be held while awaiting trial, partly because they are assigned higher bail amounts, by thousands of dollars, than whites are. For that reason, African-Americans are more likely to be stuck in jail awaiting trial even for minor offenses.

BJS found that 31.3% of all jail deaths in 2012 were by suicide.

A real close look at prison justice is needed. Prison statistics in America are an embarrassment and we should be doing everything we can to remedy the broken prison system in America.

Source: AllGov



Share

20 Comments

Leave a Reply

Pin It on Pinterest