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.

Can you help us continue the fight? Thank you.

—Peter Wagner, Executive Director
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El Paso County, Texas

According to the 2000 Census, El Paso County, Texas has a population of 679,622 people. Of those, 502,579 (74%) are White, 20,809 (3%) are Black, and 531,654 (78%) are Latino[1]. However, 6,220 (or 1% of the 679,622 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 El Paso County a population of 673,402 with a demographic that is 74% White, 3% Black, and 78% Latino.

Reported in
Census 2000
Incarcerated
population
Actual
population
Total 679,622 6,220 673,402
White 502,579 4,951 497,628
Black 20,809 711 20,098
Latino 531,654 4,364 527,290


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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