The Census Bureau must sharpen its senses

Ezekiel Edwards

The Census Bureau must sharpen its senses

As America exports democracy loudly abroad, something very undemocratic has been happening quietly in the United States, with particularly alarming results in New York State. Despite the fact that prisoners are disenfranchised in 48 of 50 states (as well as the District of Columbia), the United States Census Bureau counts them as voting residents of the counties in which they are incarcerated for the purposes of determining voting districts (which are based on population size) and the allotment of federal funds. As a result of this approach (referred to as the "usual residence" rule, that people live where they eat and sleep), tens of thousands of city-dwelling African-Americans and Latinos are enabling the existence of otherwise ineligible white voting districts upstate, increasing those districts' allotment of federal funds, and offending the principle of one person, one vote.

If New York were an entirely homogenous region, with no discernible political, social, economic or racial differences from county to county, the Bureau's approach would be far less problematic. But when was the last time you accidentally mistook Brownsville, Brooklyn for the town of Evans along Lake Erie?

Since 1980, fueled largely by the Rockefeller drug laws, New York's incarceration rate has tripled. The number of prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses has grown by 20.5 times in the past 30 years. This increase has required the construction of new prisons (or, conversely, the construction of new prisons has necessitated that they be filled). Since 1982, every prison built in New York has been upstate, so that today upstate prisons hold 91% of all state prisoners. The majority (66%) of the 71,466 prisoners in New York State come from decidedly Democratic, ultra-urban, racially diverse New York City, but most are incarcerated in white rural Republican towns up north.

According to the 2000 Census, over 44,326 New York City residents were counted as upstate residents, whereas only 586 upstate residents were counted in New York City, resulting in a net loss to the five boroughs of 43,740 residents. By deeming these inmates as "residents" of the county that imprisons them, the Census Bureau increases the sizes of various upstate districts --- and hence their political might --- while simultaneously decreasing the size and influence of certain New York City districts. In fact, the prisoners' importance to certain upstate political districts is so great that there are seven state Senate districts in New York that would not qualify as districts without their prison populations.

Adding to the perversity of this phenomenon is the power wielded by two of the senators from those prison-dependent districts, Republicans Dale Volker and Michael Nozzolio. Their districts --- which account for more than 23% of all New York state prisoners --- would be 6.79% and 5.99% under-populated, respectively, minus their inmate population. Not surprisingly, then, both senators are zealous proponents of the lengthy prison sentences prescribed by the draconian Rockefeller drug laws. More troubling is that Senator Volker, a former police officer whose district is home to Attica, Wyoming, Buffalo, Collins, and Wende Correctional Facilities, is the Chairman of the Senate Codes Committee, which is tremendously influential in shaping criminal justice policy in New York State, and Senator Nozzolio, whose district hosts Butler, Five Points, and Auburn Correctional Facilities in addition to the Willard Drug Treatment Center, is Chairman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee (to which Senator Volker also belongs). If the Rockefeller drug laws (under which 33% of all New York State prisoners have been sentenced) were repealed or seriously reformed, Senators Volker and Nozzolio would be without jobs. This reality is not lost on Senator Volker, who acknowledged that his county has "more cows than people" and that, if forced to choose between enfranchising cows or convicts, he would opt for cows since "they would be more likely to vote for me".

It seems highly undemocratic that predominantly African-American and Latino urban inmates can have such a significant political impact on overwhelmingly white rural counties, despite the fact that the inmates are not permitted to vote, "reside" in the county only by force, and whose interests and political views often differ markedly from --- if not collide head-on with --- those of the communities that live beyond the prison walls.

The unjust ramifications of this population-tallying scheme have finally gotten the attention of the federal government, which has asked the Census Bureau to issue a report this month on the feasibility of changing its current use of the "usual residence" rule in light of situations like New York's. It is time that the Census Bureau comes to its own senses and alter the manner in which it counts prisoners, so that when the next census is conducted in 2010, Senator Volker can no longer claim an incarcerated, disenfranchised Latino Democrat from Brooklyn as a resident of his district near the Canadian border (oh, wait, then he would no longer have a district!).