I had the estimable pleasure of getting an undergraduate degree in criminology, and my final research paper studied the likelihood that a single felonious act would land you in jail.
First you have to be caught. Very few are caught.
Second, you have to be charged. Many cases are quickly dropped for lack of evidence.
Third, the D.A. has to take up your case for prosecution. Most are not prosecuted.
Fourth, you have to be convicted. This part throws some people off, because the vast, vast majority of cases are disposed of my guilty pleas, so most indicted felons are convicted.
But most first time offenders don't go to jail, and in fact, it is not until you have been in the system for a while (arrests, minor convictions, etc) that they actually consider putting you in jail. Botton Line: The chances that a single felony will land you in jail are so remote as to be discounted as non-existent.
Unless, that is, unless you are White and middle class. Then the odds go up a bit.
What most people don't know is that white defendants are much more likely to go to jail for a given offense than a black defendant. Just as white kids are much more likely to be suspended or expelled from school for a given offense, and a white employee is much more likely to be fired or disciplined on the job for a similar infraction as a black employee. Blacks are the beneficiaries of society's incredibly low opinion of them.
And getting to the subject of this thread, if it were possible to know with absolute certainty the race of the perpetrator of every felony committed in this country, the percentage of those felonies committed by so-called "Blacks" is even higher than the percentage of Blacks in the prison system. Drug crimes, assaults, weapons charges, robberies, and homicides are ubiquitous in the major "Black" communities, and the only reason there is not more outrage about the situation is that most of the victims are also Black, so, basically, WGAS?
Study after study has tried to prove that Blacks are in jail because the system is prejudiced against them, and there are only two results that corroborate that finding. First, with respect to "crack" cocaine vs. white powder, and that discrepancy has been resolved. Second, they come up with anecdotal "evidence" of innocent Blacks being convicted - which is statistical nonsense.
Thank god for the American prison system. It goes a long way in reducing the crime rate, but very few people appreciate how much crime is avoided because we incarcerate so many people. Pity, that.