Is the percentage of Black inmates in Wisconsin seven times higher than the percentage of Black citizens in the state?

Explore Our Galleries

A man stands in front of the Djingareyber mosque on February 4, 2016 in Timbuktu, central Mali.
Mali's fabled city of Timbuktu on February 4 celebrated the recovery of its historic mausoleums, destroyed during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and rebuilt thanks to UN cultural agency UNESCO.
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY SEBASTIEN RIEUSSEC / AFP / SÉBASTIEN RIEUSSEC

African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles from Slave Ship Henrietta Marie

Kidnapped: The Middle Passage

Nearly Three Centuries Of Enslavement

Image of the first black members of Congress

Reconstruction: A Brief Glimpse of Freedom

The Lynching of Laura Nelson_May_1911 200x200

One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

I Am Somebody! The Struggle for Justice

NOW: Free At Last?

Memorial to the Victims of Lynching

The Freedom-Lovers’ Roll Call Wall

Frozen custard in Milwaukee's Bronzeville

Special Exhibits

Portraiture of Resistance

Breaking News!

Today's news and culture by Black and other reporters in the Black and mainstream media.

Click Here

Ways to Support ABHM?

Click Here

October 25, 2022

By Jacob Alabab-Moser, Wisconsin Watch

Wisconsin incarcerates Black people at nearly 12 times the rate of white people, according to a new report by The Sentencing Project.(Courtesy of The Sentencing Project)

Yes.

Black people comprised 42% of incarcerated individuals in Wisconsin state and federal correctional facilities in 2020, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In comparison, Black people made up 6% Of Wisconsin’s overall population in the 2020 Census. Reports from earlier years using official data show similar findings.

According to an analysis by The Sentencing Project, Wisconsin has the highest Black imprisonment rate in the nation. One in 36 Black adults in the state is in state prison, compared to one in 81 Black adults nationally.

A University of Wisconsin study examined how the 53206 ZIP code in Milwaukee has a particularly high rate of Black male incarceration, with 42% of all Black men there between the ages of 25 and 34 in the state corrections system or under active community supervision in 2013.

Wisconsin Watch includes sources for these stats.

The high percentage of Black men in prison, where they can further experience harm, is one push for prison reform.

Our breaking news page includes more stories about Black America.

Comments Are Welcome

Note: We moderate submissions in order to create a space for meaningful dialogue, a space where museum visitors – adults and youth –– can exchange informed, thoughtful, and relevant comments that add value to our exhibits.

Racial slurs, personal attacks, obscenity, profanity, and SHOUTING do not meet the above standard. Such comments are posted in the exhibit Hateful Speech. Commercial promotions, impersonations, and incoherent comments likewise fail to meet our goals, so will not be posted. Submissions longer than 120 words will be shortened.

See our full Comments Policy here.