The majority of people held in federal prisons are Black or Hispanic, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission (article available here).
Nearly half of the federal offenders were incarcerated for drug trafficking offenses—the majority for cases related to methamphetamine, the USSC reported Wednesday. Offering a snapshot of the current state of the drug war, the data showed that there were 151,729 federal incarcerees as of March 2021, of whom over 65,000 were imprisoned for drug trafficking.
About 34.9 percent of people detained by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons are Black; and 31.6 percent are Hispanic.
Another 19,473 individuals convicted of violating federal firearms regulations represented the next largest segment of federal prisoners.
The average age of federal prisoners as of March, 2021 was 41 years.
The report also shows that more than 70 percent of female offenders subject to mandatory minimums received relief, compared to 39.6 percent of male offenders.
“Quick Fact” summaries of data on federal offenders under the custody of BOP is available here. Summaries of mandatory minimum statistics are available here. A full report can be downloaded here.