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The state-prisoners rate (number of state prisoners per 1000) varies greatly among the states in the United States. (See table at end for 1996 rates.)
An interesting question to ask is: Is there any correlation between the state-prisoners rate and the strength of the two political parties in the states?
I compared different state's state-prisoners-rate (SPR) data for 1996 with the results of the 1996 presidential election for each state. (See table at end for votes in the 1996 election.) A correlation calculation yielded the following:
Correlation | Rate |
Democrat vote | -0.065 |
Republican vote | +0.219 |
That is, the Democratic votes for the states had a 7% negative correlation with increasing SPR and the Republican votes had a 22% positive correlation. States with high state-prisoners death rate vote much more Republican than Democratic and vice versa.
This is a plot of the state-prisoners rate (SPR) sorted by rank of the states compared to the Democratic votes and the Republican votes. (See table at end for the data.) Also shown are linear fits to the two votes. This shows visually the slight positive correlation of SPR with the Republican vote and the negative correlation of SPR with the Democratic vote. Note that the four lowest SPR states are definitely Democratic and the highest two states are definitely Republican. |
My Republican native state, Oklahoma (rate=0.583), ranked 46 of 50 and my Republican adopted state, Virginia (rate=0.402), ranked 33 of 50 for increasing state-prisoners rate in 1999.
U.S. state prisoners 1996 | 1996 election | |||||
State | Prisoners | Population | Prisoners/1000 | Democrat | Republican | Rank |
Minnesota | 5158 | 4775508 | 0.108 | 51.1% | 35.0% | 1 |
Maine | 1426 | 1253040 | 0.114 | 51.6% | 30.8% | 2 |
North Dakota | 722 | 633666 | 0.114 | 40.1% | 46.9% | 3 |
West Virginia | 2749 | 1806928 | 0.152 | 51.5% | 36.8% | 4 |
New Hampshire | 2062 | 1201134 | 0.172 | 49.6% | 39.6% | 5 |
Utah | 3972 | 2129836 | 0.186 | 33.3% | 54.4% | 6 |
Vermont | 1119 | 593740 | 0.188 | 53.4% | 31.1% | 7 |
Massachusetts | 11796 | 6175169 | 0.191 | 61.5% | 28.1% | 8 |
Nebraska | 3287 | 1666028 | 0.197 | 35.0% | 53.7% | 9 |
Washington | 12527 | 5756361 | 0.218 | 49.8% | 37.3% | 10 |
Iowa | 6342 | 2869413 | 0.221 | 50.3% | 39.9% | 11 |
Wisconsin | 12991 | 5250446 | 0.247 | 48.8% | 38.5% | 12 |
Montana | 2293 | 882779 | 0.260 | 41.3% | 44.1% | 13 |
Oregon | 8661 | 3316154 | 0.261 | 47.2% | 39.1% | 14 |
New Mexico | 4724 | 1739844 | 0.272 | 49.2% | 41.9% | 15 |
South Dakota | 2063 | 733133 | 0.281 | 43.0% | 46.5% | 16 |
Tennessee | 15626 | 5483535 | 0.285 | 48.0% | 45.6% | 17 |
Indiana | 16960 | 5942901 | 0.285 | 41.6% | 47.1% | 18 |
Pennsylvania | 34537 | 11994016 | 0.288 | 49.2% | 40.0% | 19 |
Kansas | 7756 | 2654052 | 0.292 | 36.1% | 54.3% | 20 |
Idaho | 3832 | 1251700 | 0.306 | 33.6% | 52.2% | 21 |
Colorado | 12438 | 4056133 | 0.307 | 44.4% | 45.8% | 22 |
Wyoming | 1499 | 479602 | 0.313 | 36.8% | 49.8% | 23 |
Illinois | 38852 | 12128370 | 0.320 | 54.3% | 36.8% | 24 |
Kentucky | 12910 | 3960825 | 0.326 | 45.8% | 44.9% | 25 |
Rhode Island | 3271 | 990819 | 0.330 | 59.7% | 26.8% | 26 |
New Jersey | 27490 | 8143412 | 0.338 | 53.7% | 35.9% | 27 |
Hawaii | 4011 | 1185497 | 0.338 | 56.9% | 31.6% | 28 |
Arkansas | 9407 | 2551373 | 0.369 | 53.7% | 36.8% | 29 |
New York | 69709 | 18196601 | 0.383 | 58.3% | 30.0% | 30 |
North Carolina | 30647 | 7650789 | 0.401 | 44.0% | 48.7% | 31 |
Missouri | 22003 | 5468338 | 0.402 | 47.5% | 41.2% | 32 |
Virginia | 27655 | 6872912 | 0.402 | 45.1% | 47.1% | 33 |
Ohio | 46174 | 11256654 | 0.410 | 47.4% | 41.0% | 34 |
Florida | 63763 | 15111244 | 0.422 | 48.0% | 42.3% | 35 |
Maryland | 22050 | 5171634 | 0.426 | 54.3% | 38.3% | 36 |
Michigan | 42349 | 9863775 | 0.429 | 51.7% | 38.5% | 37 |
California | 146049 | 33145121 | 0.441 | 51.1% | 38.2% | 38 |
Georgia | 35139 | 7788240 | 0.451 | 45.8% | 47.0% | 39 |
Connecticut | 15007 | 3282031 | 0.457 | 52.8% | 34.7% | 40 |
Nevada | 8439 | 1809253 | 0.466 | 43.9% | 42.9% | 41 |
Arizona | 22493 | 4778332 | 0.471 | 46.5% | 44.3% | 42 |
Alabama | 21760 | 4369862 | 0.498 | 43.2% | 50.1% | 43 |
Mississippi | 13859 | 2768619 | 0.501 | 44.1% | 49.2% | 44 |
South Carolina | 20446 | 3885736 | 0.526 | 44.0% | 49.8% | 45 |
Oklahoma | 19593 | 3358044 | 0.583 | 40.4% | 48.3% | 46 |
Alaska | 3716 | 619500 | 0.600 | 33.3% | 50.8% | 47 |
Louisiana | 26779 | 4372035 | 0.613 | 52.0% | 39.9% | 48 |
Texas | 132383 | 20044141 | 0.660 | 43.8% | 48.8% | 49 |
Delaware | 5110 | 753538 | 0.678 | 51.8% | 36.6% | 50 |
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