
"Americans make up 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prison population" — American Psychological Association
Mass Incarceration
The United States incarcerates more people than any nation in the world, and minority communities are disproportionately affected by this epidemic. Today, 1 out of 13 Black Americans are disenfranchised due to felony status, and indigenous women are 6x more likely to go to prison then their white counterparts. Jailed For Melanin provides a comprehensive overview of the history of our mass incarceration problem, including a timeline of policies and regulations that led to the internment of people of color, profiles of individuals who were wrongfully convicted or given unjust sentences for minor offenses, statistics that highlight the relationship between Black/brown communities and the police, and resources for learning more. This website also explores the prison industrial complex system, which enables private corporations to profit off of the forced labor of mostly people of color who are incarcerated.
1 in 3 Black men born in 2001 will be incarcerated
— The Sentencing Project
since 1980," — Prison Policy Initiative
"The number of women incarcerated has gone up
716%
132 million Americans have a family member in jail
-Forbes
Browse statistics about mass incarceration and prisons in the US





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