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Yes.
Black people comprised 42% of incarcerated individuals in Wisconsin state and federal correctional facilities in 2020, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In comparison, Black people made up 6% Of Wisconsin’s overall population in the 2020 Census. Reports from earlier years using official data show similar findings.
According to an analysis by The Sentencing Project, Wisconsin has the highest Black imprisonment rate in the nation. One in 36 Black adults in the state is in state prison, compared to one in 81 Black adults nationally.
A University of Wisconsin study examined how the 53206 ZIP code in Milwaukee has a particularly high rate of Black male incarceration, with 42% of all Black men there between the ages of 25 and 34 in the state corrections system or under active community supervision in 2013.
Sources
US Bureau of Justice Statistics: Prisoners in 2020 — statistical tables: Appendix table 2
US Census: Wisconsin 2020 census
The Sentencing Project: The color of justice: Racial and ethnic disparity in state prisons
Vera Institute of Justice: Incarceration trends in Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin Madison: The Anatomy of Concentrated Disadvantage in an Inner City Neighborhood 2000-2017
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