Rebuilding Lives. Strengthening Communities.

Advocate for revision of the methodology of the U.S. Census, which
currently counts incarcerated individuals as residents of the prisons
instead of their home communities.
Recommendation
Issue
A longstanding quirk in census rules counts incarcerated
people as “residents” of the prisons—locations where most
are held for only a short time—instead of residents from
the towns and cities where they actually lived. This
methodology pre-dates high incarceration rates or modern
uses of demographic data. But with 1.4 million people in
state and federal prison today, padding electoral districts’
population figures shifts political power from the densely
populated urban areas where most prisoners live to the
less populated rural districts where prisons often are
built. 84
As a result, the current census figures inflate the
population of communities in Illinois where the majority
of prisons are located and undercount Chicago’s population.
This is not just an issue of statistical trivia; rather it
poses significant questions as to Chicago’s proper
representation in Springfield and its eligibility for state and
federal funding.
Solution
Counting prisoners at their pre-prison addresses would
cure what has clearly become a troubling flaw in the
census process. This methodology can be modified at
either the federal or state level. Federally, the Census
Bureau could simply change its procedures before the
2010 census. On the state level, passage of House Bill
906, the Prisoner Census Adjustment Act, introduced by
Representative Arthur L. Turner in 2005, would require
the Illinois Secretary of State to create a specially modified
version of the Census Bureau’s redistricting data that
would enumerate prisoners as residents of their actual
home communities.
To grow and develop into healthy, viable settings,
Chicago’s communities should advocate for fair representation
in the calculation of its formerly incarcerated
population.
MAYORAL POLICY CAUCUS ON PRISONER REENTRY
Each decade, the Illinois state legislature uses U.S. Census
data to redraw its legislative district boundaries so that
each district will contain the same number of people as
required under the 14th Amendment’s One Person One
Vote rule. This ensures that each resident gets equal access
to government, but this principle is diluted when census
numbers fail to accurately reflect where the state’s
population actually resides. Incarcerated individuals
cannot even vote in Illinois; it is ironic, then, that they
count as constituents when state legislators draw up
legislative districts.
Each Chicago resident miscounted by the census dilutes
Chicago’s representation twice. First, it reduces the number
of Representatives and Senators from the City of
Chicago, and then again it increases the number of
Representatives and Senators from other parts of the state.
This gives districts with prisons undeserved strength in
the state legislature and more influence than they would
otherwise have in state affairs. By counting impoverished
prisoners as residents of prison districts, these counties
also reap more than their fair share of federal dollars
earmarked for the poor.
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