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
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Importing Constituents:
Prisoners and Political Clout in Wisconsin

By John Hejduk and Peter Wagner
Prison Policy Initiative
March 2008
Section:

State prison incarceration rates for each Wisconsin county per 100,000 population.

Appendix D. State prison incarceration rates for each Wisconsin county per 100,000 population.
County State prison incarceration rate per 100,000 (2000)
Adams 236
Ashland 249
Barron 156
Bayfield 200
Brown 283
Buffalo 51
Burnett 147
Calumet 130
Chippewa 125
Clark 89
Columbia 132
Crawford 186
Dane 382
Dodge 127
Door 154
Douglas 208
Dunn 88
Eau Claire 263
Florence 256
Fond du Lac 178
Forest 190
Grant 169
Green 131
Green Lake 147
Iowa 105
Iron 437
Jackson 183
Jefferson 251
Juneau 222
Kenosha 838
Kewaunee 119
La Crosse 288
Lafayette 93
Langlade 313
Lincoln 267
Manitowoc 174
Marathon 188
Marinette 265
Marquette 126
Menominee 44
Milwaukee 877
Monroe 232
Oconto 140
Oneida 201
Outagamie 181
Ozaukee 134
Pepin 69
Pierce 98
Polk 61
Portage 158
Price 265
Racine 659
Richland 195
Rock 458
Rusk 156
Sauk 199
Sawyer 210
Shawano 391
Sheboygan 222
St. Croix 101
Taylor 142
Trempealeau 104
Vernon 132
Vilas 190
Walworth 340
Washburn 218
Washington 140
Waukesha 176
Waupaca 166
Waushara 199
Winnebago 190
Wood 167

Sources and methodology

State prison incarceration rate per 100,000 (2000)
This table represents the number of people from each county that were in state prison in April 2000 divided by the April 2000 Census population of that county and then multiplied by 100,000. In this way, counties of different sizes can be compared in how frequently they send their residents to prison. The number of people in prison in 2000 from each county was drawn from the very detailed, race, ethnicity and gender specific data published by Professor Pamela Oliver in her Excel spreadsheets for Wisconsin counties imprisonment rates data [XLS], aggregated to give the total of for each county and then combined with the Census 2000 population totals for each county. These calculations do not include people sent to local jails or federal prison from each county.


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