African American Kentuckians are four times as likely to be convicted of felonies as non-African Americans

There is no clever or funny or any other way around the sad, sober-reality:

1. There are 243,842 disenfranchised felons in Kentucky. 180,984 have already served their sentences out.
2. There are 56,920 disenfranchised felon African Americans in Kentucky. 42,552 of them have served their sentence out.
3. 3,315,996 is total estimated KY Population in the 2010 census.
4. 254,797 is total estimated 2010 African American KY population.
5. 7% of Kentuckians are ex-felons, are currently serving time, or are on probation or parole
6. 22% of African-American Kentuckians are ex-felons, are currently serving time, or are on probation or parole.
7. If we subtract the number of African Americans who are convicted felons from the total number of convicted felons, and divide by the total population of non-African American Kentuckians, we find that 5.7% of non-African Americans have been convicted of felonies in Kentucky.
8. Therefore, if we consider only race, an African American Kentuckian (22%) is four times as likely to be convicted of a felony as a non-African American Kentuckian (5.7%).

All of these numbers are based on a study by the Sentencing Project.  While we can debate the cause of these disparities, a 400% increase in likelihood of felony conviction is very difficult to innocently explain away. The fact that African Americans are overwhelmingly, disproportionately the target of felony convictions in Kentucky is just another reason to pass Class-D expungement.