19 Million American Felons
2010 University of Georgia Study Estimated 8% Of Americans As Convicted Felons
From an October 1, 2017 article in UGA Today, the newsletter of the University of Georgia (U.S.): https://news.uga.edu/total-us-population-with-felony-convictions/
“…The study estimates that as of 2010 there were 19 million people in the U.S. that have a felony record, including those who have been to prison, jail or on felony probation…”
“New research led by a University of Georgia sociologist on the growth in the scope and scale of felony convictions finds that, as of 2010, 3 percent of the total U.S. population and 15 percent of the African-American male population have served time in prison. People with felony convictions more broadly account for 8 percent of the overall population and 33 percent of the African-American male population.
The study includes the first estimates of the felony conviction population and maps their distribution in the states, documenting the dramatic growth since 1980…”
And, yes, yes, the racial disparity. But we knew that. As for the disparity between the number of convicted felons who are male vs.percentage/ female, presumably the article authors found that such an obvious point that it went without saying. What I really want to learn more about has to do with the underlying reasons for that “dramatic growth” in the population of felons “since 1980.” Not that I’m completely unaware of any of that information already. That’s one of the things that this Drug War chronicle thing that I’m now putting into gear is intended to unpack. I found this article as part of an effort to acquaint readers with some introductory footing.
The keyword search I did to pull up the article was actually searching for a wider and more comprehensive figure: the number of Americans who have ever done at least one night in jail. I mean, jeez, if more than 19 million Americans over 18 have done felony time, imagine the number of living Americans with a history of at least one misdemeanor or DUI collar that included some jail time. Some unknown percentage (at least to me) of those offenses have since had their records sealed, of course. But as an opening hypothesis, I’d venture that there are at least as many Americans over 18 with at least one misdemeanor criminal conviction as there are with felony records.
So, perhaps 40 million American adults with at least one episode of apprehension for criminal behavior. Not counting the juvenile offender population. Perhaps: that number is after all merely my preliminary guess. I don’t know which way that total might lean, by the time I wrap up my initial inquiry. But I doubt it will deviate by much, especially in the direction of decline.
I haven’t been searching long; the result about felonies showed up rather quickly, and I found it thought-provoking enough to post right away. I’ll keep looking for more data related to my original topic search, and hopefully will be able to expand on this article soon. Although it may not be easy, unless I can find more studies like this one. Because, as the U. Georgia study notes:
“Because the U.S. does not maintain a registry of data on people with felony convictions, researchers calculated estimates based on year-by-year data, and used demographic methods to estimate the numbers of deaths and re-incarceration to establish a number for each state and year.”
That’s some serious number-crunching, and beyond the scope of my own ability to directly research. So, I’ll have to scrab around for the verified subtotals and statistically verified estimates out there. It certainly isn’t the first time I’ve encountered Official Bureacracy metrics, statistics, and databases that don’t ask the important questions, and ignored or obscure measurements of the most relevant factors (be they reinforcing or confounding of the various surmises or summary conclusions to be drawn from numerical tabulations and statistical samples.)
19 million American felons, c.2010. How did this happen? And what was that part about “since 1980”…?