Prisoners of the Census
There are some reports up at Prisoners of the Census that outline how political clout in Nevada has been unfairly shifted from urban to rural areas. The problem lies in the US Census, which counts people in prison as residents of the town in which the prison is located. This approach results in some quirky statistics. Take Pershing County, for instance (one of the red ones in the northwest). At least 21% of their population, and 95% of their Black population, is incarcerated. What might seem like a diverse community on paper, isn't at all in the free community. That's because most of these prisoners come from urban areas such as Las Vegas and Reno, and not from the rural areas surrounding the prisons.
So how does this lead to political imbalance? Well, there's something called the "one person, one vote" rule that is part of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court. The rule states that political districts should be drawn to contain around the same number of people (within 10%). So the political districts in Nevada were drawn with the US Census and these prisoners in mind. But since prisoners can't vote and are unable to be active constituents in their district, those people that aren't incarcerated have more say over state affairs than urban districts like that of Las Vegas. For example, in these inflated prison districts, congressional members have fewer people trying to get their attention in political affairs than in urban ones. And when funding and attention is distributed by district, an unfair proportion is being taken away from urban problem areas where more residents are incarcerated in rural prisons.
This is a ridiculous sitation that plagues many states, and could easily be remedied by modifying census techniques to count prisoners as residents of their hometown and not their prison town. Read this report or this press release for more information.
[The areas drawn in the map represent state counties, not political districts.]
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Some of the prisoners can vote... the non-felons. The real question is, where do they traditionally vote? It's obviously going to be by absentee ballott, but do they mail it to their home election board or the local election board? I wonder if anyone ever tries to register the non-felon inmates...
Admittedly, this won't have a big impact on the problem you're outlining.
Sure, but big state prisons are pretty much filled with felons.
how much of a real issue is this? What do you think the voting rate of felons is, pre-felony?
also, has there been any serious prisoner suffrage movement in history? It seems a little odd in a "democracy" for anyone to not have a say in how they are governed, even if you are deemed unfit for integration into the society that governs you. Because if >50% of the population is imprisoned, maybe the problem is the particular law they're breaking.
Read the report if you haven't. Things like the voting rate and the right for felons to vote are interesting issues, but somewhat beside the point. This study is more about how the rural location of prisoners is leveraged to manipulate political power.
It seems to be a real issue here in Nevada. The rural areas, despite their low population, seem to have an artificially inflated amount of influence in state politics.
The way you've expressed this is awkward and likely to be misinterpreted. I won't be surprised to see a link at white supremacist sites. You mean to say that in a county in Nevada, there is a small black population. However, a prison there has a significant population of black inmates, making black 'residents' of the county disproportionately felons. But, people will misread what you've said to mean black felons have taken over a Nevada county. You might want to consider being more careful when discussing race.
I also see your larger point. The situation is similar to when Southern states counted slaves for representation, though slaves were not citizens, and, obviously, not allowed to vote.
Since I'm used to a liberal audience, I often take it for granted that people have the assumptions as myself. In this case, that assumption would be that blacks are not found in large numbers in rural Nevada counties, and that they are overrepresented in prison. You're right that I should be more careful, but my point here is that urban areas in Nevada, where the minorities are for the most part found, are unfairly marginalized, politically. I wouldn't expect a white supremacy sight to link to such a conclusion.
DoorFrame,
Incarcerated folks who can vote (people in jail -- not prison -- for misdemeanors), prisoners in Maine and Vermont, and before their recent disenfranchisement in Utah and Massachusetts, must do so absentee at their pre-incarceration addresses.
Why? They simply aren't residents of the prison location. See Nev. Const. Art. 2. ยง2:
"No person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence solely by reason of his presence of absence .... while confined in any public prison. "
That's a pretty typical state constitutional clause, but something that the U.S. Census hasn't been concerned about.
That's exactly right. How can we convince the U.S. Census to act otherwise?
[...] A new angle on the Prisoners of the Census project I wrote about in October. Its main thesis: The financial Census benefit to prison towns comes not from the places that prisoners come from but at the expense of other rural communities without prisons. [...]
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