Site Network: Prison Policy Initiative | Prisoners of the Census
The Census Bureau needs to hear from elected officials -- the people who actually use the data to draw districts -- that the Bureau should change how it counts people in prison. The Prison Policy Initiative and democracy and criminal justice advocates are calling on the public to ask their elected officials to join a letter written by New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman and St. Lawrence County Legislator Tedra Cobb to the U.S. Census Bureau. The letter asks the Census Bureau to collect the home addresses of all incarcerated persons in the next national decennial census and count them at those addresses.
Individuals should ask their legislators to sign the letter. We are asking organizations to endorse the campaign and coordinating signatures from legislators. For more, see our campaign page.
“Voters who come to understand how this system cheats them are unlikely to keep rewarding the politicians who support it.”
Prison-Based Gerrymandering, New York Times editorial, May 20, 2006
Rural democracy activists can use our Democracy Toolkit to determine if prison populations are distorting local government districts and to take action.
Please also consider making a tax-deductible contribution to the Prison Policy Initiative to support our efforts to change the Census Bureau's method of counting prisoners. We are a small organization that needs your support.