National: Prisoners of the Census

Article by Peter Wagner

The Census Bureau counts prisoners not at their homes but as if they were residents of the town that contained the prison. This administrative quirk reduces the population of the communities where most prisoners come from and swells the population of rural communities that house prisons. With the incarceration rate now 4 times higher than it was 20 years ago, and with prisons increasingly being built in communities far from where most prisoners originate, what was once a trivial matter is now a critical one.

When the Census began in 1790, uses for the data were limited. The Census’ sole role was to count the number of people in each state to determine their relative populations for purposes of Congressional reapportionment. It didn’t matter — for purposes of comparing Nevada’ population to Utah’s — whether an incarcerated person was counted at home or in the Nevada State Prison, as long as they were counted in the right state. In the 1960s, state legislatures began to periodically redraw legislative district lines using Census data. Districts are redrawn each decade so that each district is of equal size based on the number of people living there. Having equal numbers of people in each legislative district ensures that each person in that district has equal access to government. This concept is known as the "One Person One Vote" rule, but it breaks down because the U.S. Census method of counting prisoners has not changed from its earlier methods.

According to a series of "Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout" reports released in December, Nevada, Montana and Idaho rely on U.S. Census data to draw their legislative districts. The Nevada Constitution, and Idaho and Montana election statutes say that incarceration (prison) does not change an individual’s residence. A prisoner’s residence remains the place that she or he lived prior to incarceration. But the Census has its own method of counting prisoners. States unwittingly violate their own laws when they use Census data to redraw districts based on where the Census has counted prisoners.

In one Idaho district, .9% of the district’s population is prisoners and 5.5% of one Nevada Assembly District is incarcerated. Montana contains one district, House District 85, that is almost 15% prisoners, a higher figure than in any other state legislative district yet discovered in the United States. House District 85 counts among its census population 1,308 incarcerated people. However, none of these "constituents" are allowed to vote in this district. As a result, every group of 85 residents in Montana House District 85 is given the political power of 100 residents elsewhere in the state. Counting prisoners in House District 85 dilutes the votes of their family members in their true "home" districts.

Given the disproportionate confinement of Native Americans in Montana, Blacks in Nevada and Native Americans and Latinos in Idaho, this outdated Census practice has a particularly severe affect on these communities. For example, 95% of the Blacks in Pershing County, Nevada and 91% of the Blacks in White Pine County, NV are incarcerated. This doesn’t mean that these counties are extremely racist or punitive, rather it reflects a population imported from somewhere else. Because the Census didn’t ask, it’s impossible to say exactly where these Black citizens should have been counted, but they most likely came from Las Vegas and not the rural Nevada Assembly District 35 that contains these counties.

"The way the Census Bureau counts prisoners diminishes the political clout of our cities and in particular the Black neighborhoods of our cities," said Dean Ishman, President of the Las Vegas Branch of the NAACP said in a press release for the Nevada report. "We must change the way the Bureau counts prisoners — it is a question of basic fairness."

The reports called for citizens and state officials to ask the Census Bureau to stop assigning prisoners to the address of the facility and instead count them as residents of their home communities. To find out more about this national problem, visit www.prisonersofthecensus.org

The author is a Soros Justice Fellow at the Prison Policy Initiative conducting a national project to convince the Census Bureau to change how it counts incarcerated people. The Nevada report was co-released with the Western Prison Project partner the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

This article originally appeared in the Winter 04-05 issue of Justice Matters.