Site Network: Prison Policy Initiative | Prisoners of the Census

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Illinois

Counting 26,304 mostly Black and Latino residents of Chicago as residents of downstate prison towns has had a staggering impact on democracy in Illinois at both the state, and county levels. Most of the state’s prisoners (60%) are Chicago residents, but the vast majority of them (90%) are counted as residents of downstate prisons. This miscount of incarcerated people misrepresents Illinois’ demographic makeup and skews its system of legislative representation. It is too late for the Census Bureau to change where it counts people in prison, but a growing campaign seeks to eliminate prison-based gerrymandering by changing how the state and counties use the Census data.

graphic showing that many Illinois residents are credited to downstate prisons

Every prison built in Illinois after 1941 was built more than 100 miles away from Chicago; the average distance from Chicago to a prison is more than 200 miles. The State bars people in prison from voting, but their presence in the Census boosts the population of the downstate districts whose legislators favor prison expansion. 11 downstate districts are padded with substantial prison populations, and if redrawn, district boundaries would change throughout the state.

The problem is even more serious in county government, where large prisons can dominate the comparatively small populations of county legislative and supervisory districts. For example, 25% of Lee County's 4th district is incarcerated, giving every group of 75 residents in that district as much influence as 100 residents in the other districts.

Pending legislation

There is a bill pending in the House to collect the home addresses of incarcerated people, and to require the state and county governments to draw legislature districts on the basis of Census Bureau data corrected to count incarcerated people at their home addresses.

The bill:

Illinois area leaders

It’s impossible to include everyone who is working toward fair districting in Illinois, but if you are looking to get involved, these are some of the people and organizations you might want to contact:

Endorsements

Fact sheets

Additional reading

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