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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Sutter County, California

According to the 2000 Census, Sutter County, California has a population of 78,930 people. Of those, 53,291 (68%) are White, 1,509 (2%) are Black, and 17,529 (22%) are Latino[1]. However, 454 (or 1% of the 78,930 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 Sutter County a population of 78,476 with a demographic that is 67% White, 2% Black, and 22% Latino.

Reported in
Census 2000		 Incarcerated
population		 Actual
population
Total 78,930 454 78,476
White 53,291 338 52,953
Black 1,509 72 1,437
Latino 17,529 93 17,436


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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