Even if we gave you the hint that the answer is not a southern state, we’d be pretty impressed if you could name the state with the highest incarceration percentage of black men.

 

The answer? Wisconsin.

 

According to a new study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, “America’s Dairyland” has incarcerated 12.8% of its black male residents, a much higher rate than the next contender, Oklahoma (9.8%):

 

A big chunk of the state’s black male prison population comes from Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s biggest city. According to the researchers, more than half of all black men in their 30s and 40s had been incarcerated at some point. That means there’s a large population of men in the state’s biggest city who are essentially unemployable, which puts a huge drag on the economy — and a big reason Milwaukee is one of the poorest big cities in the country. (Milwaukee’s metro area also boasts one of the biggest gaps in incomes between blacks and whites.)

 

And Milwaukee’s poor felons are concentrated in the same neighborhoods: the study also found that almost two-thirds of Milwaukee County’s incarcerated black men come from the city’s six poorest zip codes.

 

Read more at NPR.

 

At what point will lawmakers see the connection between incarceration, race, and poverty?

Is the prison industry complex so large and economically necessary that real reform cannot happen?

What do you think about the findings?

Sound off below!!!!