Help End Prison Gerrymandering Prison gerrymandering funnels political power away from urban communities to legislators who have prisons in their (often white, rural) districts. More than two decades ago, the Prison Policy Initiative put numbers on the problem and sparked the movement to end prison gerrymandering.

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—Peter Wagner, Executive DirectorDonate

Solano County, California

According to the 2000 Census, Solano County, California has a population of 394,542 people. Of those, 222,387 (56%) are White, 58,827 (15%) are Black, and 69,598 (18%) are Latino[1]. However, 9,800 (or 2% of the 394,542 people) are not residents by choice but are people in prison.

Even though prisoners cannot participate in the local community, the Census Bureau nevertheless counts them as residents of the county where they are incarcerated.

A more accurate description would not include the prisoners. This would give Solano County a population of 384,742 with a demographic that is 57% White, 14% Black, and 18% Latino.

Reported in
Census 2000		 Incarcerated
population		 Actual
population
Total 394,542 9,800 384,742
White 222,387 4,954 217,433
Black 58,827 3,742 55,085
Latino 69,598 2,237 67,361


Notes:

[1]The numbers for Whites, Blacks and Latinos may not add up to the total number because we have not included racial groups other than Whites and Blacks and because the Census Bureau considers "Latino" to be an ethnicity, not a race. Most of the people reported as being Latino are also counted as being White or Black.



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