Why There are So Many Hispanics in US Prisons from Planck's Constant

According to an AP story ¹ this morning nearly half of all people sentenced for federal felony crimes are Hispanic. For those who do not know, Hispanics are only 16% of the general population and even less if you don't count illegal immigrants.

We can look at this piece of information in two ways:

Either the Hispanics are guilty of some crime and deserve to be in prison

The Justice system in this country is racist and we are picking on Hispanics for the fun of it.

We can easily dispose of number two by noting that even if a federal law were passed forcing police to stop and frisk more Norwegians and Australians, Hispanics would still comprise almost half of the Federal Prison population.

However, if Mexico were filled with Norwegian-racial types instead of Mexicans and the same poverty existed there as now, we would be arresting Norwegians in huge numbers despite the fact that they are white. Race has nothing to do with it.

If our politicians would just get down to the business of genuinely dealing with our border with Mexico, there would be fewer Hispanics in prison.

That's it - no long discussion or deep analysis needed.

Notes

(1):

Fox28 News, More Hispanics go to federal prison
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - They shuffle into the courtroom in shackles, still wearing the dust-covered clothes and shoes from when they crossed the desert into the U.S. from Mexico.
The 70 illegal immigrants, mostly men and mostly in their 20s and 30s, fill the 16-seat jury box and seven rows of wooden benches normally reserved for the public in Tucson's gleaming federal courthouse. The courtroom is expansive, with a regally high ceiling, and is filled with the pungent smell of dried sweat.

In only an hour or so, the dozens of immigrants will agree to plead guilty and be sentenced in a process that could play out for months for most federal defendants.

The scene offers a window into a federal immigration enforcement effort that is pushing the limits of the U.S. justice system, overwhelming federal judges and escalating the ranks of Latinos sent to prison.

Expedited court hearings along the border are a major force driving a seismic demographic shift in who is being sent to federal prison. Statistics released this week revealed that Hispanics now comprise nearly half of all people sentenced for federal felony crimes, a number swollen by immigration offenses. In comparison, Hispanics last year made up 16 percent of the total U.S. population.

Sentences for felony immigration crimes, which include illegal crossing as well as other crimes such as alien smuggling, accounted for about 87 percent of the increase in the number of Hispanics sent to prison over the past decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Sentencing Commission data.