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

Polk County, Florida

According to the 2000 Census, Polk County, Florida has a population of 483,924 people. Of those, 385,099 (80%) are White, 65,545 (14%) are Black, and 45,933 (9%) are Latino[1]. However, 4,717 (or 1% of the 483,924 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 Polk County a population of 479,207 with a demographic that is 80% White, 13% Black, and 10% Latino.

Reported in
Census 2000		 Incarcerated
population		 Actual
population
Total 483,924 4,717 479,207
White 385,099 2,194 382,905
Black 65,545 2,161 63,384
Latino 45,933 403 45,530


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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