92% of New York's prison cells are in disproportionately White Assembly districts
Sunday, March 20, 2005 at 01:36PM
TheSpook
The Census Bureau counts incarcerated
people as if they were residents not of their homes but of the prison's
location. When states like New York ignore their own constitutional
requirement that incarceration does not change a residence and use
Census data to draw legislative districts, the result is to transfer
political power from high incarceration neighborhoods to the areas that
contain the prisons. I've previously written about the regional bias
implicit in the arrangement. Sixty-six percent of the New York State's
prisoners come from New York City, but 91% of the state's prison cells
are located in the upstate region. Even more critical is how this
impacts the political power of Blacks and Latinos in the state compared
to Whites. New York State is 62% White, but 82% of the state's prison
population is Black or Latino. Virtually all -- 92% -- of the prison
cells are located in state Senate districts that are disproportionately
White for the state. [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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