The poster is a visual representation of the data provided by Bureau of Justice Statistics of changes in population of confined inmates in the United States jails in 1999, 2006 and 2013. The table shows state’s total number of jailed inmates and its percentage of the total jailed population in the U.S. (by year). The states are organized into four regions (Midwest, NorthEast, West and South) and each region has a combined number of inmates and its corresponding share in the total confined population.
According to the presented data, Southern states were responsible for nearly half of the total U.S. jailed population. I quickly realized that, when not given in the context of the total population of the state (per capita), this data may prompt a bias opinion.
I started by converting the total number of inmates into the number of inmates per 100,000 people of the state's population. I chose to combine on the same graph all the states together, while keeping them grouped into the original regions. The design allows for the viewer to quickly identify the larger trends of confined population growth or decline by individual state and through time, simultaneously comparing them to the U.S. average of the most recent census. Individual state data grouped by a region is also listed in detail for further exploration.
PROCESSING THE DATA
INITIAL IDEAS
REFINEMENT
FINAL DESIGN
