Race
See also:
Race and crime in the United States and
Racial inequality in the American criminal justice system

Percent of adult males incarcerated by race and ethnicity.
According to the
US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) non-Hispanic blacks accounted for 39.4% of the total prison and jail population in 2009 (841,000 black males and 64,800 black females out of a total of 2,096,300 males and 201,200 females). According to the
2010 census of the
US Census Bureau blacks (including Hispanic blacks) comprised 13.6% of the US population. Of ethnic groups,
native Black Americans,
Puerto Rican Americans, and
American Indians have some of the highest rates of incarceration.Though, of these groups, the black population is the largest, and therefore make up a large portion of those incarcerated in US prisons and jails.