DC Residents in the BOP
August 7, 2020
This has been a busy week. Today, I attended the ReThink Justice monthly meeting. At the meeting a representative of Council for Court Excellence (CCE) disclosed the results of a survey of DC residents in the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Here are some of the statistics:
Who was at the BOP on July 4? 3221 DC Code offenders
Demographics: Sex Race
Female. 71 American-Indian. 2
Male. 3150 Asian 6
Black 3078
White 135
Top Charge & Security Level
Charge Number
Homicide/Aggravated Assault. 1612
Robbery 429
Sex Offenses 324
Violation of Spv/Parole 323
Drugs 35
Misc 33
Who is Coming Home?
1,042 DC Code offenders have release dates within 24 months.
The full report with analysis has not been released yet. When it is posted on the CCE website, I will let you know and post the link.
Some Preliminary Observations
Most DC residents who are in the BOP have been convicted of a violent crime: homicide, aggravated assault, or robbery. Most DC residents in the BOP are black. If you want to see what mass incarceration means to the African-American community, just look at the demographics: the overwhelming percentage of people in prison are black men. If we want to reduce the number of black men in prison, then we as a society have to shorten prison sentences and invigorate parole. This means that people who have committed a violent crime should not be in prison for 30-50 years. It means helping people who have committed a violent crime make amends through a restorative justice program. It means ending the daily racial humiliations that black people too often experience in this country.