The U.S. prison population has decreased significantly over the past decade, although it experienced a small rebound between 2021 and 2022. In that context, the amount of Latinos imprisoned has also seen a drop, but they are still overrepresented in the overall figures.
According to a new report by the Department of Justice, 23% of the more than 1.2 million people in state and federal penitentiaries in 2022 were Latino, when the demographic comprises roughly 20% of the overall population in the U.S. The overrepresentation is much higher among Black people, making up 32% of the prison population and 13.6% of the overall population.
