Black Male Incarceration Rate Doubles Over the Decade

The total U.S. prison population rises from 329,000 in 1980 to 740,000 in 1989, with Black men comprising nearly 47% of inmates by decade's end despite being 6% of the population. Drug war mandatory minimums, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, and intensified policing of Black neighborhoods drive the surge. Sociologists begin using the term mass incarceration to describe the phenomenon.