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

Martin County, Florida

According to the 2000 Census, Martin County, Florida has a population of 126,731 people. Of those, 113,912 (90%) are White, 6,673 (5%) are Black, and 9,506 (8%) are Latino[1]. However, 1,699 (or 1% of the 126,731 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 Martin County a population of 125,032 with a demographic that is 90% White, 5% Black, and 8% Latino.

Reported in
Census 2000		 Incarcerated
population		 Actual
population
Total 126,731 1,699 125,032
White 113,912 769 113,143
Black 6,673 874 5,799
Latino 9,506 91 9,415


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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