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

Yuma County, Arizona

According to the 2000 Census, Yuma County, Arizona has a population of 160,026 people. Of those, 109,269 (68%) are White, 3,550 (2%) are Black, and 80,772 (50%) are Latino[1]. However, 2,765 (or 2% of the 160,026 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 Yuma County a population of 157,261 with a demographic that is 68% White, 2% Black, and 51% Latino.

Reported in
Census 2000		 Incarcerated
population		 Actual
population
Total 160,026 2,765 157,261
White 109,269 2,037 107,232
Black 3,550 453 3,097
Latino 80,772 1,137 79,635


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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