Incarceration rates vary by race/ethnicity.

The Prison Policy Initiative has compiled incarceration rates by race/ethnicity using data from the 2010 census. Their graphic above shows wide contrasts in Massachusetts.

While Massachusetts’ white and black incarceration rates are low among states, its black rate is 6 times its white rate. The black-white incarceration rate disparity is wider than the black-white poverty rate disparity — the white poverty rate in the 2007-2011 period in Massachusetts was 8.3%, as compared to 21.1% for blacks and 29.9% for Hispanics. See Census Report: Poverty Rates for Selected Detailed Race and Hispanic Groups by State and Place: 2007–2011.

Massachusetts’ Hispanic rate is above the median among states, but Massachusetts’ 1:4 white-Hispanic incarceration rate disparity is roughly equal to its white-Hispanic poverty rate disparity. As the Hispanic share of the Massachusetts resident population has grown from 1% in 1970 to almost 10% in 2010, the Hispanic share of the state prison population has grown from nil in the 70s to 26% of the total in 2015.

We have replicated the Prison Policy Initiative computations for each state in the table below.

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Persons in adult correctional facilities per 100,000 residents by state and race/ethnicity -- 2010 Census