The term prison industrial complex describes the rapid expansion of the US inmate population. It’s a term used to illustrate the overlapping interests of the government and private prison companies. Therefore, the more people in prison, the more profit the prison makes. Due to this philosophy, more and more people are being incarcerated and a very large percentage of those people are African Americans.

     A study conducted by the USSC between 2012 and 2016 showed that a black male is 19.1% more likely to receive a higher sentence than a white male for a similar crime. According to The Sentencing Project, non-profit organization that works hard to better the lives of the incarcerated, the U.S. is the world’s leader in the number of people incarcerated, with 2.2 million people in prison as of 2015, a 500 percent increase over the last 40 years. The black/white sentence disparities have been increasing over the past few years. A report from USSC’s states that the sentence choices are made by judges at their own discretion. Judges are less likely to reduce a sentence for a black convict when compared to a white one. This finding suggests that even judges run on racial bias. Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, a project working to reduce that bias in the judiciary system claims that decisions by federal prosecutors are also driving the disparities.  

     The United States currently houses the highest inmate population in the world with an incarceration rate of about 666 inmates among 100,000 people. Among whites, this rate is about 450 for every 100,000. Whereas, among blacks, this rate is 5 times more for 2500 for every 100,000. These drastically different rates will keep growing unless something will be done about them. If these rates keep up, by 2030, the jail will have a little over 45% of its population as blacks. Luckily, there is a group working to reduce this rate. The Sentencing Project is a group trying to reduce mass incarceration. According to the  Sentencing Project, “by 2018 the U.S prison population reached 1.4 million people, declining by 9% since reaching its peak in 2009.” 

     According to the USSC, Black male offenders who did not receive a sponsor are likely to get a 16.8% longer jail time compared to whites. Even black juvenile delinquents receive harsher penalizing compared to whites. Over this past year, over 1000 blacks have been shot to death by the police. Black Americans account for approximately 13% of the United States’ population and are killed by the police at more than twice the rate of white Americans. An overwhelming amount of these victims are young and are between the age of 25 and 35. 

     During the B.L.M (Black Lives Matter) protests, many lives were lost. According to TIME, 93% of the BLM protests were peaceful, and still, lives were lost. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) analyzed more than 8000 protests that took place all over the United States to reach this conclusion. The US crisis project, a joint project between the ACLED and the Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) at Princeton University collects data on these protests and provides it to organizations that plan the protests.    

     The BDI works toward supporting communities all over the United States. “BDI works to build an expansive picture of peacebuilding across the country, to highlight existing work while developing new avenues for coordination and support.” This Initiative working alongside the ACLED in a project called the US Crisis Project. This project “uses different tools and methodologies to track demonstrations and political violence in real-time. We share these tools in public visualizations and analysis, as well as custom products for key partners and organizations.” (US Crisis Project) This project uses different tools to track political violence during rallies and protests.

     The US Crisis Project also works towards abridging the number of violent protests and angry mobs throughout the United States. According to Forbes, as of June 8th, at least 29 people died in violent B.L.M protests. The US Crisis Project works toward abolishing this number by encouraging more and more peaceful protests. 

     Many organizations such as the BDI, ACLED, and The Sentencing Project work toward a better life for black Americans. These organizations all focus on different aspects of Black Lives and try to ameliorate the field. It is the hard work of organizations such as these that ended segregation and it will be the hard work of organizations like these that will eventually end racism.