The October 15 article headlined, “Providence has the Highest Incarceration Rate of any City in Rhode Island” is negligent, thin, and inflammatory.
First off, using a “per 100,000” figure as a multiplier makes whatever crime there is appear huge. Our city’s population is just under 200,000. If you crunch the numbers presented in the report, in 2020, a total of 1,780 people were incarcerated, which is statistically 0% of our state’s just-over-a-million population, although really 162 per 100,000.
Saying that “544 per 100,000 — people are incarcerated from Smith Hill” is just plain wrong. According to the Prison Policy Report this article was mined for, Smith Hill’s population in 2020 was either 7,308 or 7,348, and only 37 people from the neighborhood were incarcerated.
Additionally, the graphic that demonstrates “vastly different” incarceration rates is an exercise in the obvious. It’s not shocking that “Wayland” has 0 per 4,000 whereas “Upper South Providence” has 52 incarcerated people from of its population of 4,996. Not only are these two areas economically very different, the population density is significantly different.
Finally, the conclusion that Providence’s high incarceration rate, “can be attributed to the city having larger Black and Latino populations and the criminal justice system disproportionately policing these communities,” is unsubstantiated. Perhaps race does play a huge part, but in the Eye’s article poverty is ignored.
Perhaps if the author could have quoted from the actual Prison Policy Institute report:
“One thing these five high-incarceration cities have in common is an elevated poverty rate. For example, Central Falls, with a poverty rate of 25%, and Providence, with a rate of 22%, are more than twice the statewide poverty rate of 11%. The high rates of incarceration in these cities with particularly high poverty rates may not be surprising, given that poor people and their families and communities are disproportionately impacted by the criminal legal system.”
Journalism is about more than simply restating a conclusion presented in a report or press release. Serious questions must be raised.
Mark Binder
East Side
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