Rates of Incarceration in Georgia

As of 2013, Georgia had the eighth highest incarceration rate in America, with 533 people out of every 100,000 imprisoned. That's 35 percent higher than the national average of 395, according to the National Institute of Corrections.

The average daily number of incarcerated Georgians as of January 2012 was 53,704, said the Vera Institute of Justice.

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According to data from 2005, The Sentencing Project reported that for every 100,000 people in Georgia, there were 623 white, 2068 black, and 576 Hispanics incarcerated. The ratio of jailed Hispanics to jailed whites was .9 Hispanic persons for every 1 white person. The ratio for black-to-white incarceration rates was 3.3 jailed black people for every white inmate. The ratio of blacks to Hispanics incarcerated was 3.6 black people for every 1 Hispanic person.

Georgia had the second lowest black-to-white prisoner ratio at 3.3. The only state that scored better was Hawaii with a 1.9 ratio. Georgia's black incarceration rates are lower than the national black incarceration rate, but its white incarceration rate is higher than the national average.

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The Georgia Family Connection Partnership reported that between the years of 1997 and 2010, Georgia's youth incarceration rates declined by an incredible 52 percent.

Recidivism — when a formerly jailed person is sent back to prison — is the largest problem facing modern American prisons today. One proposed solution is to emphasize re-entry into the workplace instead of punishment, but Georgia still has a high youth recidivism rate at 65 percent.

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