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.

Can you help us continue the fight? Thank you.

—Peter Wagner, Executive Director
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Salt Lake County, Utah

According to the 2000 Census, Salt Lake County, Utah has a population of 898,387 people. Of those, 775,666 (86%) are White, 9,495 (1%) are Black, and 106,787 (12%) are Latino[1]. However, 5,791 (or 1% of the 898,387 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 Salt Lake County a population of 892,596 with a demographic that is 86% White, 1% Black, and 12% Latino.

Reported in
Census 2000
Incarcerated
population
Actual
population
Total 898,387 5,791 892,596
White 775,666 3,851 771,815
Black 9,495 406 9,089
Latino 106,787 1,253 105,534


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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