CRIME Differences in Number of Prisoners From time to time the Census Bureau collects data relating to crime. There has been in each case, however, a considerable variation in the number of prisons, that is, jails, penitentiaries, etc., from which data were collected. In 1904, the prisoners in 1,337 prisons were enumerated. There were in these prisons, at that time, 50,111 white and 26,661 colored persons. There were committed to these prisons that year 125,093 white persons and 24,598 colored persons. In 1910, the prisoners in 3,198 prisons were enumerated. There were in these prisons, at that time, 72,797 white and 38,701 colored persons. There were committed to these prisons that year, 369,468 white persons and 110,319 colored persons. The number of penitentiaries and reformatories from which data were collected in 1904, 81, and in 1910, 82, was practically the same. There was, however, information from 1,764 more municipal prisons, jails, and work houses in 1910 than in 1904. The above variations in the number of prisons considered vitiate the comparisons of crime rates for different periods. In 1890 the number of prisoners per 100,000 of the population was for whites, 104; for colored, 325. In 1904 the number was, for whites, 75; for colored, 277. In 1910 the number was, for whites, 89; for colored, 378. In 1904 the number of commitments to prison per 100,000 of the population was, for whites, 171; colored, 256. In 1910 the number of commitments was, for whites, 425; colored, 1,079. The number of colored prisoners in penitentiaries per 100,000 of the colored population was 225 in 1904 and 260 in 1910. Rate of Crime Higher in the North There is a much higher rate of crime among Negroes in the North than in the South. This is to a large extent due to the fact that seven-tenths of the Negroes in the North live in cities and are of an age when persons have the most tendency to crime. guage, swindling, jilting a girl, colonizing Negroes, turning HEALTH Mortality Statistics The registration area from which the death-rates of whites and Negroes is derived consists of 20 Northern and Western States, of Kentucky, Maryland, Municipalities in North Carolina having in 1900 a population of 1,000 or over and 38 cities in non-registration States. The population of this area is, white, 57,700,000, or 63 per cent of the total white population; and Negro 1,500,000, or 15 per cent of the total Negro population. The total number of deaths in the registration area in 1911 was, white, 779,770; Negro, 56,431. The death-rate for Negroes appears to be decreasing. In fortyfive cities in which the colored popuplation is at least 10 per cent of the aggregate population, the death-rates for colored people were as follows: Annual average, 1901-1905, 28.4; 1904, 29.2; 1905, 28.3; 1906, 28.1; 1907, 29.0; 1908, 26.2. The death-rates for the whites were: Annual average 1901-1905, 17.5; 1908, 16.5. Commenting on this, the Census Report says: "It is probably not a fair comparison for the colored race because the conditions of housing and of living among colored inhabitants of our large cities, as for example in the alley houses of Washington, D. C., are far inferior to those of the white population and correspond to the slum districts of Northern cities. Even as it is, however, the colored death-rate for the combined cities for the year (26.2) is not high, and shows a reduction from the rate for the preceding year (29.0), and from that for the five-year period, 1901-1905 (28.4).” In 1911 the death-rates per 1,000 of the population for the whole registration area was, white, 13.7; colored, 23.6. In the registration States it was, white, 13.6; colored, 21.8. In the rural parts of registration States it was, white, 12.5; colored, 18.9. In registration cities it was, white, 14.7; colored, 26.0. At the 1914 Session of the Annual Tuskegee Negro Conference a series of charts prepared by the Editor of The Negro Year Book were exhibited, showing: The Death-rate for Negroes. The diseases most fatal to Negroes. The number of Negroes who die annually. The possible decrease in the Negro death-rate in the next fifty years. The money cost of Negro sickness and deaths to Negroes and to the South.* This Conference requested that these charts be printed so that teachers and others might have them to use as illustrations of the importance of health improvement among Negroes. This series of charts follow: *It is estimated that the average economic value of each life sacrificed annually by preventable deaths $1,700. |