Rise in U.S. jail and prison inmate population

[snajmabadi]

From pitch #98

This series explores the jail and prison inmate population in the U.S. from 1980 to 2014.

Datasets:

http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=kfdetail&iid=487 http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5519

Also wondering what people think of this sort of a design?

Story issue checklist

My pitch was #98:

• [ ] My pitch has been approved (see PITCHING.md)
• [x] My story issue links to my pitch issue
• [x] I link to my finalized (ish) data source(s)
• [x] I've included a brief summary of my story
• [x] I've included some possible headlines or findings
• [x] I've included some links or images as inspiration (if you have any)
• [x] I have received two comments of peer feedback
• [ ] I've included an update of my visualization/story in a comment
• [ ] I have received two comments of peer feedback after posting an update
• [ ] I have received editorial feedback

[raschuetz]

Pretty!

• possible to normalize (by 100,000 residents every year?). and even by percent change on top of that?
• I like the light background!
• You only have the vertical lines in one graph—you could do that for the others if you want
• You could also play around with grouping things by color (the red you’re using to highlight to associate with the text that’s annotating it)

[jowang0319]

Love the project! Several suggestions:

• For the first and third chart, what does different color mean? Maybe a nice label could help!
• You marked the federal crime bill, but as a foreigner, I don't really know what that is or what influence does it cause, maybe I need some more detail or explanation about it!.
• About the style of the last graphic, it's always cool to use a darker background, but maybe you would need to use a lighter color for the bars and the text to make them more readable~ Overall it looks really nice and consistent!

[ghost]

Awesome! I agree with @jowang0319 , the colors are not clear-- I think the first chart is between federal and state prison populations, and the second between prison and jail, but I can't tell which is which :)

I prefer the lighter graphics, they seem to "pop" more, the dark one just does not seem that approachable, and I think it would also be difficult to place on a page.

Just a little thing-- I think the red arrow would actually work better and look more elegant if there was only an arrow on the top, not the bottom? Also, what does it look like if you take out the vertical grid lines in the second graphic? So all your bars charts just have perpendicular grid lines? I think that would be a cool unifier stylistically, and also, I think it might be easier to lead the eye to the number on the axis that way.

And then, a question about scales! The first and third graphs are totals, so it's an absolute value. The second is per 100,000-- but why per 100,000? I feel like most people would have a better grasp of a percentage, and that by pulling it up to per 100,000 it might be a little confusing, especially if you are moving between the 3 charts.

[playfairbot]

Hi there, I'm the Playfair Bot! Would you mind posting the appropriate checklist in the main body of your issue? You might have posted it as the first comment, but it turns out it works way better in the actual body of the issue - just go up to the veeery top right and click the pencil icon to edit. You'll probably want to edit the comment to copy the checklist, then edit the original issue to paste it in. Thanks! :pray:

[snajmabadi]

Thank you for all the helpful comments! I made a few of the changes here, and am working on putting in some more. Some in-progess updates:

Also thinking of making a few state-specific charts (I imagine there being 6ish small graphs representing state increases. The red bars highlight the years after the crime bill).

[jsoma]

Looking great!

For the "+300% increase" I would demarcate exactly over when you're talking about, whether by bracketing the area or giving the background a highlight over the range, along with maybe spending a few more words describing the why/what matters.

Year xxes: You could probably cut down on the years for the first two graphs, maybe every 5 or something? The tough part is the first one doesn't start in a -0 year!

Arrows: I have a personal bias against arrows, lines or bust! But in this case I'm thinking, the idea isn't "something happened here once," but rather "something happened AND CONTINUED TO EXIST" which is the important part, right? So I think the idea you had with the state chart is A+, because it implies the continuation of the action. So I say go for coloring the bars or coloring the chart background starting in that year.

Clearly that is bad and ugly and you should be able to see the grid beneath the highlight etc but you get the idea!

Vertical axes: I really like your grids! Even though it isn't necessary, you might want to keep the same spacing for the state-specific charts (if you end up making them) - right now it's a little disjointed from the rest because it has maybe half as many labels on the vertical axis.

Citation text: I say bump up the font size a little bit, or maybe even bold them (sin of sins!). With a thin font and a small size it's easy for it to disappear when the image gets resized even a little bit.

[snajmabadi]

...and more updates:

[kbennion]

Wow! I like your layered charts and labeling and formatting choices -- the information is there and clear but not overwhelming. It is slightly confusing to have federal and state prison and jail and prisons indicated with the same color, but I can see the appeal of visual consistency. I think the state graphs could benefit from slightly more labeling -- do they also start at 1980? What is the numeric value of the first horizontal line for inmates?

What does the 300% increase in the second graph indicate, increase in total incarcerated population?

[playfairbot]

Closing since pull request #188 has been accepted