Maryland first state to count prisoners at home
In February, we reported extensively about an effort to change the way New York State counts prisoners in the census tally.
Instead of counting them in the district where the prison is – and where the inmates share little to no economic, social, or cultural interest – the inmates would be counted at their home address.
At the time of those reports, no state in country had made such a change, even though the U.S. Census office has offered to make it easy for them.
Maryland has beat the rest of the nation to the punch with the first law to count inmates in their home districts. Advocate Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative says the new law corrects distortions in state legislative districts:
In Somerset County, a large prison is 64% of the 1st Commission District, giving each resident in that district 2.7 times as much influence as residents in other districts. Even more troubling is that by including the prison population as “residents” in county districts, the county has been unable to draw an effective majority-African American district and has had no African-American elected to county government, despite settlement of a vote dilution lawsuit in the 1980s.
The North Country would effectively lose power in Albany if a similar change were made in New York. Do you think it’s only fair? Or do you think prison districts deserve the extra credits of including inmates in the local population?
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Northern Prisons and Redistricting:Franklin County subtracts the prison population from federal census figures for purposes of local redistricting, with solid bi-partisan support. The counties of Clinton and Essex also make this adjustment.If the thousands of inmates held in prisons near Malone were counted the same as real county residents, then political clout would abruptly shift to the north. Would all the citizens of Franklin County agree to let this happen?The same logic applies to New York State. Why should the predominant prison population of northern regions be counted for state redistricting purposes, especially since convicted felons have lost the right to vote? New York State can follow the lead of Franklin, Clinton, and Essex counties. The entire statewide prison population should be deducted from the census figures for purposes of reapportionment. The prison population of northern Franklin County is not counted in the local legislative district plan, nor is it counted in two neighboring counties, and for the same good reasons the prison population should not be counted anywhere in New York State when the Senate and Assembly district boundary lines are redrawn.Daniel JenkinsTupper Lake