Lucas, there is a little-known and fully unjust practice that has powerful
implications on our democracy--Prison-based gerrymandering which takes
political power from communities of color.
The U.S. Census is required to count everyone within the borders every
10 years, but incarcerated people aren't allowed to be counted at
their permanent address.
Over 2 million incarcerated people will be misrepresented in districts
they have no connection to. Incarcerated people are being counted in the
wrong places--the place of their detainment at the time of the census,
rather than their permanent address. This causes a distortion of political
representation.
Please click here to sign and send a message to the U.S. Census Bureau
urging them to accurately count incarcerated people at their permanent
addresses--the communities they will return to after their sentence, instead
of the place of their temporary interment.
Prison gerrymandering deprives home districts, typically urban centers, and neighborhoods with a large population of people of color, of vital representation and gives areas where prisons are housed, typically rural and white, disproportionate representation. See the case of Anamosa, Iowa, New York state, and Wyoming for some of the most egregious examples.
Incarcerated people are often housed in prisons and jails temporarily and moved around often. Most people in prison are serving short sentences--many less than three years spread across multiple facilities. In New York state, the median time served in a facility is less than seven months. In Georgia,the average person has been transferred four times and the median time spent at the current facility is nine months. While their locations change often, incarcerated people are always required to report a permanent address. This is where they should be counted--much the way that temporary residents are counted.
It's a violation of equal representation, plain and simple.
Please click here to contact the Census Bureau and urge them to rectify this injustice. We have pre-written statements and plenty of information for you to add so that we can push the Census Bureau to do the right thing.
Keep fighting,
Rachel Colyer, Daily Kos