Fewer black Georgians sent to prison | www.myajc.com

Substantially fewer African-Americans are being locked up in Georgia, a remarkable and historic change in a state that has long packed its prisons with disproportionate numbers of black offenders.

Black people still make up more than 60 percent of the state prison population. But in just the past five years, the number of black men being sent to prison has declined 19 percent, and the number of black women has tumbled 33 percent, according to Department of Corrections data obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Prison sentences imposed on African-American offenders have dropped by 20 percent. The decline is so great that the number of blacks entering the prison system in 2013 was at its lowest level since 1988 – a quarter of a century before.

“Georgia’s been going in one direction for more than 50 years,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project in Washington. “But a 20 percent decline in the number of blacks being sent to prison is not trivial, it’s not a blip. It’s a substantial shift away from the dynamics of the past. The question is can we build on it.”

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