Last week, the Captain posted what can at best be described as an overtly derogatory assessment of the minortiy prison population. And by minority, I mean “black.”

Sanjay, you and I both called him on egregious assumptions, and irresponsible rhetoric. I came across some data this morning that substantiates our claims, and rather invalidates his assertion that “blacks commit more crimes than whites.” This comes to you via Radley Balko, a policy analyst for the Cato Institute, and writer for Fox News. I particularly enjoy the work he does regarding the war on drugs – he has a lot more time to sift through the data than I do.

-Total U.S. inmates numbered 488,000 in 1985, 1.3 million in 2001, and number 2.2 million today.

-According to survey data by human rights groups, one in five U.S. prison inmates has been sexually assaulted.

-According to federal sentencing guidelines, a man would need to possess 50 times more powder cocaine (prefered by white users) than crack cocaine (prefered by black users) to earn the same prison sentence.

-Blacks represent about 12 percent of the U.S. population, but 48 percent of the prison population. They represent just 13 percent of drug users, but 38 percent of those arrested for drug crimes, and 59 percent of those convicted.

-When convicted of the same drug felony, blacks are about 50 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison than whites.

So there it is, for whatever it’s worth. I’m not going to dispute the fact: Blacks are “convicted” of disproportionally more crimes than whites (and probably other minorities.) Making the leap, however, between “commit” and “are convicted of” is is, among others things, a compositional fallacy.