COVID-19 amplified racial disparities in the US criminal legal system.

ABSTRACT: The criminal legal system in the USA drives an incarceration rate that is the highest on the planet, with disparities by class and race among its signature features^1-3. During the first year of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of incarcerated people in the USA decreased by at least 17%-the largest, fastest reduction in prison population in American history⁴. Here we ask how this reduction influenced the racial composition of US prisons and consider possible mechanisms for these dynamics. Using an original dataset curated from public sources on prison demographics across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, we show that incarcerated white people benefited disproportionately from the decrease in the US prison population and that the fr

SUBMITTER: Klein B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10172107 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature