White House Statistics: Prison Population Majority Involves Hispanics

Hispanics make up more than half of the prison population in the United States, while they comprise less than one-third of the entire population of the country. These findings were part of the report by the White House, which also suggested that majority of Americans have grown tired of crime policies that contributed greatly to the increased number of inmates.

The Hispanic inmates' increase in numbers came as a result in spite of the significant reduction in the general crimes rate, with a 39% decline in violent crimes rate, Whitehouse.gov reported. The data presented that reasons like growing incomes are linked to such reductions. In the aspect of minorities, researchers discovered that Hispanics are confronted with the greater chance of arrest and conviction, compared to whites with the similar crimes. Also, sentencing and penalties appear to be much more strict to the minority suspects.

In general, the poor have been found to be more likely to become part of those severely penalized. According to the report, the sanctions given by the criminal justice system can worsen the current disadvantages experienced by these groups; hence, promoting the patterns of inter-generational poverty.

The US is expected to provide an amount of $80 billion on incarceration every year and more than $270 billion on the whole criminal justice system. In general, the country uses almost three times the total of correction officers per capita of other nations, yet uses almost 30 percent less of police officers. A few years ago, 11 states have been found to have spent more on putting people on jail rather than on higher education, Huffington Post reported.

Hispanic juvenile offenders were also found to have the tendency for falling in the similar trend, reducing the possibility of earning their high school diploma. According to the researchers, a more beneficial and cost-effective criminal justice system is likely to happen, although it would need a more holistic and humane approach to the system.