The Census and Democracy: Maryland Fixes a Major Error
April 14, 2010 The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-lotke/the-census-and-democracy_b_536924.html In the wake of the 2010 Census, Maryland passed a law yesterday that fixes a major problem. Maryland will now count people in prison where they actually live, not where they are confined. This first-in-the-nation law will improve the fairness and accuracy of Census data used to draw...
Read MoreA Fairer Way to Count
April 14, 2010 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/opinion/15thu3.html Maryland struck a blow for electoral fairness this week with a new law requiring that prison inmates be counted at their home addresses when legislative districts are redrawn after the 2010 census. Other states should follow. Counting inmates as residents — prison-based gerrymandering — inflates populations...
Read MoreHome away from home: Where should prisoners count?
WKTV – NBC 2 Utica, NY http://www.wktv.com/internal?st=print&id=89745552&path=/news/local ALBANY, N.Y. (WKTV) – A proposed change to how the census counts prisoners would not effect funding. According to Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative , there is no mention of federal funding in the legislation. Wagner says the purpose of the bill is solely to impact...
Read MoreFight Over “Prison-Based Gerrymandering” in Census
March 30, 2010 Gothamist http://gothamist.com/2010/03/30/fight_over_where_to_count_prisoners.php Politicians and convicts alike are arguing with the Census Bureau over where prisoners are counted. Currently, prisoners are counted as residents of the areas where they are being held, not from their hometowns. The last Census information counted 43,740 inmates from the city as residents of towns in...
Read MorePols, Cons Fight Census Bureau to Include Prisoners as Residents of City, Not Upstate Jails
March 30, 2010 NY Daily News http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/03/30/2010-03-30_concensus_is_unfair_fighting_to_include_prisoners_as_residents_of_city_not_upsta.html The last time the census was done – in 2000 – Brooklynite Ramon Velasquez was locked up in Attica state prison for robbery. According to the Census Bureau, Velasquez lived not in hardscrabble Bushwick, but in rural...
Read MoreA Proper Count of Inmates
March 23, 2010 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/opinion/24wed4.html The Census Bureau took an important first step toward electoral fairness when it announced that it would publish data on prison populations earlier than in the past, in time for the next round of legislative redistricting. This data, which will become available in the spring of 2011, will make it easy for state...
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