INCARCERATION

In his article, “America’s incarceration rate is at a two-decade low”, John Gramlich discusses the falling incarceration rate in the United States and how it compares to that of other countries. The United States’ incarceration rate peaked between 2006 and 2008 which lines up with the Great Recession. Since that period, however, the rate has declined every year and hit an all-time low since 1996 when the article was written in 2018 (Gramlich, 2018). Not only has there been a decline in the incarceration rates, there has also been a decrease in the actual number of prisoners. Gramlich posits that there are many reasons for this decline including falling crime and arrest rates and changes in sentencing patterns. Despite the decline, the United States still maintains the highest incarceration rate globally. Falling 7% higher than the country with the second highest rate, the United States has an average of 655 inmates per 100,000 people (Gramlich, 2018).

Texas is notorious for being tough on crime and not being afraid to incarcerate people, so it was interesting to look at the incarceration rates for counties in Texas and see what the numbers are like. Texas has the highest prison population in the country with over 150,000 prisoners statewide and the sixth highest prison rate at 530 prisoners per 100,000 residents preceded only by Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Arizona (World Population Review, 2021). It is not surprising that the top six states (and even the top ten states) with the highest prison rates are located in the south, given what we have discussed in class and read in American Prison. When looking at specific counties in Texas, however, many of these rates are much higher. For example, in 2016, Kenedy County has the highest prison population rate in Texas with 3,488 prisoners per 100,000 residents, nearly seven times as many prisoners as the rate of the entire state (Vera Institute, 2020). Additionally, Dickens county had a jail population rate of 26,450 inmates per 100,000 residents in 2016 (Vera Institute, 2020). These numbers are startlingly high and support Gramlich’s point that while the incarceration rates are declining, they are still incredibly high, especially when compared internationally.

The trend that Gramlich describes of the United States’ incarceration rate peaking between 2006 and 2008 and then declining can be seen throughout different counties in Texas. For example, in Angelina County, a rural county in eastern Texas, the incarceration rate increased steadily from 1982 until 2006 when it peaked at a total prison population rate of 1,572 prisoners per 100,000 residents and a total jail population of 495.4 inmates per 100,000 residents (Vera Institute, 2020). After this, the incarceration rate began to fall. Another county that shows a steep decline in incarceration rates is Kenedy County, mentioned earlier as the county with the highest prison population rate. Kenedy County had a rapid increase in incarceration rates from 2005 to 2008. In 2005, the county’s prison rate population was 1,329 and by 2008, it was 5,535 per 100,000 (Vera Institute, 2020). This, however, was not Kenedy County’s peak. There was a slight dip in 2009, but in 2010, the rate skyrocketed up to 10,072 prisoners per 100,000. After this peak, there was a sharp and continual decline down to 3,488 prisoners per 100,000 residents in 2016 (Vera Institute, 2020). So, while Kenedy County still has the highest prison population rate in Texas, it is still following the national trend of an overall decline since the early 2000s.

Looking again at Kenedy County, the incarceration rates provide some interesting insight that aligns with what was discussed in class during Week 3 of the semester. During class on February 1, Dr. Wooten spoke to state policy driving mass incarceration and there being a huge increase in mass incarceration in the 1980s because of the War on Drugs. In Kenedy County, there was a dramatic spike in 1986 where the prison population rate climbed to 9,659 prisoners per 100,000 residents, the second highest rate in the county’s history, and then fell just as dramatically afterwards (Vera Institute, 2020). This rapid increase in state level incarcerations makes sense given the increased number of local prisons and jails as well as the enhanced sentencing that was created to try to decrease the instances of drug related crimes that were discussed in class.

It is interesting to think about how this dramatic increase in prisoners over the course of just a few years in the 1980s and 1990s as well as the early 2000s would affect the state. In class, we talked about the cost of incarceration and that, while it varies from state to state, it is incredibly expensive per prisoner. A sudden influx would cause harsh economic changes, not to mention all of the issues that would occur for those who were incarcerated. There was most certainly overcrowding, lack of resources, and undeserved sentences that were a result of this sharp increase in the prison population similar to the situation that was described in the New York Times Retro Report from class.

Overall, it was interesting to see how Texas’s incarceration rates per county followed the national trend that Gramlich described in his Pew Research article. Similar to the previous project we completed, this project continued to show that Texas is one of the top states that is tough on crime and that there is solid data to back that up. Looking forward to the next project, I am interested to see if this trend continues.

References

Gramlich, J. (2020, May 30). U.S. incarceration rate is at its lowest in 20 years. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/05/02/americas-incarceration-rate-is-at-a-two-decade-low/.

Vera Institute. (2020, September 10). Vera Institute Incarceration Trends. GitHub. https://github.com/vera-institute/incarceration-trends.

World Population Review. (2021). Prison Population by State 2021. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/prison-population-by-state.