Originally Posted by kane

Here is an interesting fact and question.

Based on the 2010 census 4,347 of every 100,000 black people were in jail. 1,755 of every 100,000 Hispanic people were in jail. 678 of every 100,000 white people were in jail. This means that black people are put in jail at about 6.4 times the rate of whites. Hispanics are put in jail at a rate of about 2.5 times that of whites. So clearly there is a pretty major disproportion.

You can't argue that blacks and Hispanics aren't more likely to end up in jail than white so here is my question. Why is it this way? Are black people committing 6.4 times as many crimes? Or is it the type of crimes they are committing that is sending them to jail?