Amid growing calls for justice for Floyd and an overhaul of our criminal justice system, a new report published by the Reflective Democracy Campaign reveals that 90% of sheriffs across America are white men.
Titled Confronting the Demographics of Power: America’s Sheriffs, the report explores the racial and gender demographics of sheriffs as well as their impact on public health and safety.
The most glaring finding, perhaps, is that 92% of elected sheriffs are white while 90% are white men even though 50% of people in jails are people of color.
Sheriffs, who manage county jails and a wide range of law enforcement activities, operate with less oversight than local police chiefs or commissioners, according to the report.
They have unparalleled autonomy and tremendous power, and that power is concentrated overwhelmingly in the hands of white men, who are 90 percent of sheriffs nationwide,” said Reflective Democracy Campaign Director Brenda Choresi Carter in a statement.