Effects of the US Census: Prison-based electoral politics grows as number of inmates around the nation balloons

Ward two in Anamosa has all the benefits of a city council seat, but only 58 constituents. The rest are in prison.

The US incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. About 1 in every 37 adults in the US is in prison. Rates are even higher if you are a person of colour, particularly a male. The prison population is counted in the US census. Counting prisoners in the US census but not on the ballot box can have severe effects. While this may not have posed as big of a problem in years past, when incarceration rates were much, much lower, its having huge ramifications today, in everything from how state funding is allocated, to how electoral boundaries are drawn.  The New York Times ran a story this week about an election in Anamosa, Iowa where Danny Young was elected as a representative to city council on a total of 2 votes. The reporter explains: “That is because his ward includes 1,300 inmates housed in Iowa’s largest penitentiary — none of whom can vote. Only 58 of the people who live in Ward 2 are nonprisoners”. Similar occurances are happening in Wisconsin, Tennessee, and New York. Read the full story

Electoral politics are not the only thing affected from the booming prison population. In addition to a high incarceration rate, the US incarcerates a disproportionate number of people of color. In Wisconsin, incarceration rates for blacks are nearly twelve times higher than for whites. The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) reports that this has affected the distribution of funds, often from urban communities of colour to rural an prison communities. Read an except from their 2004 report below:

Pecentage of Black Population Incarcerated in Wisconsin by county

“According to the census, Dodge County has a black population of 2,142 people. Without doing any research beyond the statistics delivered to us from the latest census, one might conclude that there has been a rise in communities of color within this predominantly rural county. However, after looking closer, we realize that 89 percent (1,196 persons) of the black population within Dodge County is incarcerated. The county is the site of two major state prisons, the Fox Lake Correctional Institution and Waupun Correctional Institution.

According to Peter Wagner, director of the PPI, this type of redistribution of the population “impacts how redistricting and political power is exercised in the state.” As a “demographic distortion”, it affects both urban and rural communities. He notes: “These demographic distortions affect both urban and rural communities due to this confluence of increasing prison population and growing rural unemployment, as population-scaled federal and state funds are tipped towards rural prison communities and away from urban communities of color.” Follow this link to the full report.