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 DirectorDonate
Can you help us continue the fight? Thank you.
—Peter Wagner, Executive DirectorDonate
Too big to ignore:
How counting people in prisons distorted Census 2000
By Rose Heyer and Peter Wagner
Prison Policy Initiative
April 2004
Section:
Too Big To Ignore interactive tables
The data used to make many of the maps in the Too Big to Ignore report can be accessed via this page. This tool will allow you to see how the Census Bureau's method of counting people in prisons skews your county's demographics. The most common use of this tool is to search for your county by its name, but you can also access the data in more complex ways through the drop down menus on this page.
Recommended Reading:
About the Prison Policy Initiative
Learn more about the organization behind the Prison Gerrymandering Project.
The Racial Geography of Mass Incarceration
The transfer of Black and Latino incarcerated people to communities very different than their own is a nationwide problem.
How to get elected without being a candidate first.
Iowa Public Radio explores how Anamosa Iowa ended prison gerrymandering.
