II. RACIAL DISPROPORTIONALITY WITHIN WASHINGTON STATE'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

For context, we note that the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, more than twice as great as the two Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries with the next highest rates (Chile and Israel), more than six times that of Canada, nearly four times that of Mexico, and nearly five times as great as the United Kingdom. Within the United States, the high incarceration rate is disproportionately experienced by certain racial and ethnic groups, with whites incarcerated at a rate of 412 per 100,000 white residents, blacks incarcerated at a rate of 2290 per 100,000 black residents, and Latinos incarcerated at a rate of 742 per 100,000 Latino residents. In the United States, drawing from 2005 data, blacks are incarcerated at 5.6 times and Latinos at 1.8 times the rate of whites.

Table 1: Prison and Jail Incarceration Rates and Ratios, 2005, United States

In 2005, the black incarceration rate in Washington, 2522 per 100,000 black residents, was greater than the national average. The Latino incarceration rate, reported at 527 per 100,000 Latino residents, was lower than the national average. We include this figure with caution, however, because many local jails, including King County's, do not collect ethnic demographic information. In 2005, blacks in Washington were incarcerated at 6.4 times and Latinos at 1.3 times the rate of whites, with the caveat that the Latino figure likely reflects both an undercount of Latinos and an overcount of whites. The fact of racial and ethnic disproportionality in Washington's incarcerated population is indisputable.

Table 2: Prison and Jail Incarceration Rates and Ratios, 2005, Washington

Our review of more recent data reveals that racial and ethnic disproportionalities exist at many different stages of the criminal justice system, including arrest, charging, conviction, and imprisonment. The figure below shows 2010 Hispanic-white, black-white, and Native-white disproportionality ratios at conviction for serious felonies by offense categories. The figure shows that the disproportionalities are not consistent for different offense categories.

Figure 1: 2010 Hispanic-White, Native American-White, and Black-White Disproportionality Ratios at Conviction for Serious Felonies by Offense Categories

TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE

The data provided to us by the Office of Financial Management, the Washington State Center for Court Research, and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs on arrests, charges, convictions, and imprisonment show that racial and ethnic disproportionalities still exist at these different points in Washington's criminal justice system. We turn now to examine possible causes of these disproportionalities.