General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bernie admits need to get schooled on African-American incarceration* [View all]Sophia4
(3,515 posts)3797 per 100,000 residents, and you have only (I have read different numbers on this) 6,139 African American residents of Vermont. That is no where near 100,000.
it is about .06 percent of 100,000. So .06 percent of 3797 is maybe 226 individuals. The excess imprisonment (under state not federal law most likely) is not all 226 or so because a certain amount of the imprisonment can be due to a higher crime rate.
I have found different numbers on this issue on different websites. I am not an expert on it. But numbers per 100,000 gives an exaggerated idea of the number of individuals out of a group of between 6,139 and 3,063 (approximate, depending on the website you use as a source) is not 3,797, not by a long shot.
"The census shows the number of black Vermonters has doubled in the past 15 years. Then again, the actual figures rose from 3,063 in the year 2000 to 6,435 today up from 0.5 percent to 1 percent of the states roughly 626,000 residents."
https://statisticalatlas.com/state/Vermont/Race-and-Ethnicity
https://www.infoplease.com/us/comprehensive-census-data-state/demographic-statistics-298
https://vtdigger.org/2016/01/17/is-vermont-the-whitest-state-in-the-union/
The vtdigger has the highest statistic for African-Americans in Vermont at 6,435.
Hard to say but it is clear that in spite of the high incarceration rate, the statistics on African-Americans in Vermont are going up.
As for the prison, jail statistics, we would need to know what the people are in prison for.
I am very opposed to imprisoning African-Americans at higher rates than whites, but when not many people are involved, and that is the case in a state with a small population like Vermont, it may not be a problem that gets a lot of attention. It is likely that many, many people in Vermont have been unaware of the problem. The fact that the ratio is so disadvantageous to African-Americans suggests that this is a problem that has been ignored for a long time.
I am not taking issue with the fact that it is a problem, an important problem. I am taking issue with the fact that, of all the politicians in Vermont, especially those active at the state level and able to change the state laws and state enforcement that causes this injustice and disparity, the OP criticizes Bernie about it.
Bernie is a federal senator. He deals with federal law. It's great that he is the clear voice for social justice that he is.
But the problem, and it is a serious one although it does not result in the incarceration of over 3,000 individuals, is not Bernie's. It is the problem of the state politicians and law enforcement in Vermont. Bernie is not among them. He may be able to help deal with the problem, but he is not to blame for it.