SACRAMENTO (AP) — A new report by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice says racial gaps have narrowed across the American criminal justice system between 2000 and 2016, the most recent data available.
Among the findings:
— The imprisonment rate for Blacks and Hispanics dropped about 30% between 2000 and 2016, while white imprisonment rates increased about 12%.
— The rate at which Blacks were imprisoned for drug crimes fell by nearly two-thirds, while it increased for whites by about 7%.
— The racial disparity between Hispanics and whites for drug offenses dropped from five Hispanics for every white inmate to 1.5 Hispanics for every white.
— Both the Black and white imprisonment rates for property crimes declined, but the decrease for Blacks was more than 10 times that for whites.
— The disparity ratio between Blacks and whites in county jails nationwide dropped by 42%.
— The decline in the Black jail incarceration rate was largely driven by a 41% decrease in the Black drug arrest rate.