This visual story is intended to exposes some of the realities of the American prison system. With the highest incarceration rate per capita of any country in the world, many Americans are beginning to question why so many are locked up in the "Land of the Free". As this visualization demonstrates, our jails are rapidly and senselessly reaching capacity or overcapacity. It is intended to point out the major trends and ways in which the system can be reformed.
Why, for example, are African-American males consistently the majority population in state jails? Why is Texas conducting more executions than the other 49 states combined? And about 40% of prisoners are incarcerated for non-violent crimes on average across gender and racial categories. If reform could pave the way for legislated that reduced or eliminated jail sentences for minor crimes such as drug possession and public order (i.e. disorderly conduct, public drunkenness), the national prison population would evidently drop dramatically.
If you have questions or comments, drop us a line! Otherwise, enjoy and we hope you find it a thought-provoking read.
This website was built using Javascript, jQuery, a tiny bit of Bootstrap, and D3.js for all visualizations. The map was created using DataMaps (http://datamaps.github.io/). And data was collected from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the International Center for Prison Studies, and the Prison Policy Initiative.