The Hispanic population has doubled since 1990 and in the last 10 years has become the only race that has also seen growth in prison inmates, a break from the trend in shrinking black and white prisoners, according to two new reports on Latin immigrants.
The Justice Department reported that of the three races it counts, there were 336,500 Hispanics in federal prisons in 2017, a 2% increase in 10 years.
By comparison, there were 475,900 black federal prisoners in 2017, the latest statistics released, a remarkable 20% drop since 2007.
The white prison population, meanwhile, shrunk 12.7% to 436,500.
The surge in illegal immigration likely plays a role in the Hispanic prison population. Justice holds about 60,000 illegal immigrants in prison.
The growth in the Hispanic population also is a major factor and comes as the black and white populations have shrunk.
The new FactsUSA 2019 Annual Report said that Hispanics are 18% of the U.S. population, up from 8% in 1990.
“The average American today looks and lives differently than they did 30 years ago. Today, 61% of the population is nonHispanic White, down from 76% in 1990. Meanwhile, the Hispanic and Asian populations have doubled as a percentage of the total over that time,” said FactsUSA.
The report also looked at all prison populations, including state and local jails, and found a similar trend to the one in the federal report, with white and black prisoner populations shrinking.
And, just as Justice had, FactsUSA logged an increase in the Hispanic prison population, to 23% in 2016, up from 16% in 2000.
“In 2016, Blacks made up 27% of all arrests and 33% of all prisoners while only making up 12% of the total population. Hispanics, meanwhile, constituted 18% of all arrests and 23% of all prisoners, while making up 18% of the total population,” said FactsUSA, the annual nonpartisan report on U.S. facts and figures.
