New statistics from the Justice Department show that nearly 2.4 million people were incarcerated in state and federal prisons at the end of last year. Another five million people were on parole or probation. This means about one in every thirty-one adults in the United States was in prison, in jail or on supervised release at the end of last year. According to an analysis of the data by the Sentencing Project, the data reflects deep racial disparities in the nation’s correctional institutions. A record 905,000 African Americans are now being held in prison. In several states, incarceration rates for blacks were more than ten times the rate of whites.