A new government report shows Latinos have reached a new milestone, albeit a negative one, making up the majority of people being sent to federal prison for committing a felony.
Prior to this report Hispanics were already the largest minority group in federal prison serving sentences for felonies. Now their numbers have surpassed the entire federal prison population. Specifically, Hispanics make up 50.3% of all people sentenced in the first nine months of the 2011 fiscal year while representing 16% of the U.S. population.
Whites makes up 26.4% of that federal prison population while blacks represented 19.7% of the federal prison population.
The increase in Hispanics committing felonies thus far this year is driven by convictions in immigration offenses, all non-violent, such as entering the country illegally, over staying a visa or smuggling other illegal aliens into the country.
