libertariannews | If you’ve ever wondered about this question, then this 2010 study is for you!
About 25% of the total US adult black population has a felony,
while 6.5% of adult non-blacks have a felony conviction. About 8.6% of
the adult population has a felony conviction.
Florida is a particularly egregious police state. 35% of adult
blacks in Florida have felony conviction, 14% of the total adult
population in Florida have a felony conviction.
About 20 million people have a felony conviction in Amerika. That works out to about 1 in 12 adult Americans.
Note, those numbers are for 2010. Looking at the growth rate
trajectory, we are probably up to around 24 million people today in 2014
with a felony conviction. This means we are probably pushing 10% of the
adult population today.
One other thing to consider is that a large number of would-be
felonies are plead down to misdemeanors, so the actual total number of
people who were caught committing a felonious act is undoubtedly much
higher than these numbers portray.
If no criminals took a plea deal, and all felonies were prosecuted to
the fullest extent of the law, the entire US criminal justice
system would implode within a year. Over 95% of federal cases never go
to trial.
