Incarceration Trends 

    In this article, the author points out the incarceration rate in the United States is often seen as a national problem, yet the problem often lies at the local level.  The article looks at Broome County, "The prison incarceration rate is now 45 percent higher than in New York City (551 per 100,000 residents aged 15-64 in Broome, versus 380 per 100,000 residents of the same age in NYC)" (Henrichson, 2024). 80% of the prison population are pre-trial detainees, meaning that while they are presumed innocent, they cannot afford the bail and are forced to spend their waiting period in prison. These atrocious numbers do not even show the racial disparities in the system. For example, black residents were incarcerated at 10 times the rate of white residents.  Policy makers in smaller cities do not realize the incarceration rate has increased relative to their population. The call to action is for communities to use data tools to better understand and address incarceration issues. By moving policy towards a more grassroots effort, effective change can be implemented. 

In the second article, The Pew Research Report on prison population for  2019 the total incarceration numbers for people behind bars in the United States was 2.1 million individuals. The incarceration rate in 2019 was 810 inmates per 100,000 people, which had dramatically declined from its peak in 2008. "The nation's incarceration rate peaked at 1,000 inmates per 100,000 adults during the three-year period between 2006 and 2008" (Gramlich, 2021). In fact, this was equal to the lowest it had been since 1995. Some of the reasons for this decline was a nationwide lower level of arrest, a sharp fall in property and violent crime, and progressive federal prison policies like the First Step Act signed by President Trump and implemented in 2018. This particular act led to lesser federal sentences and earlier releases. Even with the new policies, the US still leads the world in prison population, surpassing countries Turkey and Brazil. Most western European countries are far below the US numbers. The only country in the world that beats the US in incarcerated people is China. While the US population has declined, the incarceration rate is still one of the highest in the world. Even though improvements have happened, they have done little to change the vast incarceration rate in the United States. 

    Before discussing the graphs, we must discuss the difference between jails and prisons. Jails are short-term facilities used to hold people awaiting trial or sentencing and for people serving short sentences. Prisons, on the other hand, are long-term facilities used for inmates who are convicted of serious crimes with longer sentences. Inmates are sent to prison after they are convicted of a crime if their sentence is longer.

    This visualization in 2016 shows the geographic distribution of prisoner populations in Florida counties, and the state is jaw-droppingly-overrepresented in Okeechobee County, with 1,889 prisoners per 100,000 people. The effect of the color in areas with higher rates of incarceration stand out, and shows where the concentrated imprisonment can be seen. Okeechobee Correctional Institution is a large state prison that pumps up the county’s prisoner count compared to its population.These rural counties have higher incarceration numbers because they house large prison facilities so the prison population counted doesn’t reflect local crime rates as much as the presence of correctional facilities.  

    Another example would be also in Glades County’s 2016 jail population rate, 4,443 prisoners per 100,000 residents, is driven by the Glades County Detention Center, which is a federal immigration detention center. This contributes to the wide variation in the distribution of the jail population across Florida. There is a difference in scales between jails and prisons that could be made clearer. Rural counties often have either federal or state detention centers, the jail population may not correspond to local crime rates and more context on detention policies and the capacities of facilities is needed. The stacked area chart illustrates the total rates of jail and prison populations over time, from the early 1990s to 2016. The brown section represents the prison population per 100,000 residents, while the blue section represents the jail population, demonstrating how both have evolved over the years. There is an obvious peak during the mid-2000s in the populations of both countries, followed by a slight decline in either population in later years. This trend indicates long-term growth in incarceration, likely driven by government policies like tough-on-crime legislation, mandatory minimum sentences and detaining people in jail. The dip since 2010 could suggest policy reforms, decriminalizing initiatives, or changes to sentencing laws.

In the prison population chart, I calculated the number of prisoners per 100,000 residents in each county by dividing the total prison population by the total county population and then multiplying it by 100,000. Similarly, I calculated the jail population per 100,000 by taking the total jail population for each county, dividing it by the total population, and multiplying it by 100,000. In my area chart, I did the same thing, except now I added these two rates together per year to get the total jail and prison population rates together for a given year.

    These graphs connect to class, especially in the area chart, as incarceration rates rise during the tough-on-crime. This happened during the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. Comparing Florida's jail and prison population rates to those of other states is essential to understanding Florida's rates. Florida prison-in-jail population rates are above the national average; however, they are not the highest. Louisiana and Oklahoma have higher incarceration rates. Putting this into more of a worldview, the US has the highest incarceration rates in the world. We average around 600 to 700 inmates per 100,000 residents. Canada, however, only experiences 100 incarcerations for 100,000 people.

 

References 

Gramlich, J. (2021). America’s incarceration rate falls to lowest level since 1995. Pew Research
   Center. https://www.pewresearch.org

Henrichson, C. (2018). Take a look at mass incarceration in your own backyard. Vera Institute of 

Justice. 

https://www.vera.org/news/expanding-our-knowledge-on-local-incarceration-trends#post2

Kang-Brown, J., & Hinds, O. (2018). Opening up local incarceration data: Incarceration Trends 

Dataset (1970-2015). Vera Institute of Justice. 

https://www.vera.org/news/expanding-our-knowledge-on-local-incarceration-trends

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (n.d.). Glades County Detention Center. U.S. 

Department of Homeland Security. 

https://www.ice.gov/detain/detention-facilities/glades-county-detention-center

Vera Institute of Justice. (n.d.). Incarceration trends dataset [Data set]. GitHub. 

https://github.com/vera-institute/incarceration-trends

Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office. (n.d.). Okeechobee County Jail inmate information. 

Okeechobee County Sheriff. 

    https://floridaprisonroster.org/florida/county-jail/okeechobee-county-jail/