\nLaSalle Parish, in Louisiana, just redistricted their local government and School Board. There are two prisons located in the Parish: the LaSalle Correctional Center in Urania and the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena.\n<\/p>\n
\nAccording to The Jena Times<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n \nAfter deducting the number of prisoners counted in the census at the two prisons in the parish \u2013 LaSalle Correctional Center in Urania and LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena \u2013 the remaining population to be used for reapportionment purposes was 13,921. When that number is divided by 10 \u2013 the number of districts in the parish \u2013 it reveals the ideal number of residents for each ward should be 1,392. However, reapportionment rules allow that districts may be 5 percent lower or higher than that figure to be acceptable. That placed the acceptable number of citizens for each district between 1,320 and 1,458.\n<\/p>\n \nIf the prison population had been left in the redistricting data, Districts 3 and 7 would have had disproportionate representation in LaSalle government.\n<\/p>\n \nDistrict 3 would have claimed the Correctional Center’s population as 38.7% of the district, giving every 61 actual residents the same say in government as 100 residents in the other districts that did not have a prison. District 7 would have been 28.6% incarcerated giving them a smaller, but still significant advantage of needing 71 actual residents for every 100 living elsewhere.\n<\/p>\n \nLaSalle joins over 100 local governments<\/a> across the nation have taken the initiative to correct the problem themselves by manually adjusting flawed Census data. By the end of May, the Census Bureau will publish additional data<\/a> to make the process even easier for governments who are still in the process of redistricting.\n<\/p>\n