The Prison Policy Initiative documents the impact of mass incarceration on individuals, communities, and the national welfare. We produce accessible and innovative research to empower the public to participate in improving criminal justice policy.
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- 2001
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- Geo-Politicized Space: Race, R...
Muhlenberg College, Miller Forum, M...
Wednesday, November 4 at 7:00pm
Prison Policy Initiative The New York City Council held a hearing on prison-based gerrymandering yesterday, considering two resolutions. Get the testimony and see why other cities and the upstate counties should do the same and make their views known to the NY legislature and the Census Bureau.
Source: www.prisonersofthecensus.org
Yesterday, the New York City Council held a hearing on two prison-based gerrymandering resolutions.
Prison Policy Initiative
Pennsylvania's prison system is swelling with people who should be paroled, and the state is seeking the wrong solution. Instead of fixing parole policies, the state is building more prisons and preparing to ship thousands of incarcerated people to other states. And why do states like Michigan have extra space? Because... those states made the right policy decisions to be Smart on Crime. PPI's Peter Wagner is quoted in the story.Read More
Source: www.pittsburghlive.com
State Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard is arranging to ship up to 2,000 Pennsylvania inmates to out-of-state prisons beginning Jan. 1.
Prison Policy Initiative
Tell 5 people about the Prison Policy Initiative. Lots of people have joined our page today. Let's keep this going. I'll send everyone who gets at least 5 friends to join the page one of our new "No Representation Without Population, End Prison-Based Gerrymandering" bumper stickers. If you qualify, send your name and a...ddress via "contact us" on the website at http://www.prisonpolicy.org/contact.html and I'll send the bumper sticker right out.Read More
Prison Policy Initiative I just posted a blog post about the Mississippi Attorney General's call to end prison-based gerrymandering. -Peter Wagner
Source: www.prisonersofthecensus.org
County Supervisors in Wilkinson County, Mississippi faced a quandary after the last census. The Corrections Corporation of America had just opened a large private prison ...
Prison Policy Initiative Prison Policy Initiative In an editorial today, the New York Times included a discussion of prison-based gerrymandering in a call for redistricting reform in New York State.
Source: www.nytimes.com
New York’s lawmakers should create a nonpartisan, independent redistricting commission to draw lines fairly for Congressional seats and legislative seats.
Prison Policy Initiative Mary Sanchez has a great column about prison-based gerrymandering "What the Census will get wrong" appearing in newspapers around the country today. Aleks Kajstura blogs about it.
Source: www.prisonersofthecensus.org
The U.S. Census is once again gearing up to count incarcerated people in the wrong place. This census data is soon going to be used ...
Prison Policy Initiative Today is the last day for prison-based gerrymandering in Anamosa Iowa. The city had a district that was 96% prisoners with a handful of people dominating the city council. Today's election is the first election under a new system that abolished the districts. Iowa Public Radio has the story. They interview Danny Young -- the last prison district representative -- and PPI's Peter Wagner.
Prison Policy Initiative Aleks Kajstura blogs about the impact of prison-based gerrymandering in Pennsylvania
Source: www.prisonersofthecensus.org
In Pennsylvania, there are eight state house districts that owe their existence to large prison populations in the 2000 Census. With the 2010 Census poised ...
Prison Policy Initiative
The Prison Policy Initiative has joined former Census Bureau Director Charles Kincannon and dozens of non-profits in a letter to the U.S. Senate in opposition to an amendment that would threaten the ability of the Census to be taken on time. The Vitter/Bennet amendment would require the Census Bureau to throw out year...s of preparations and delay the taking of the 2010 Census to add an unconstitutional question about immigration status. Legality aside, it is simply too late for the Census Bureau to reprint 180 million Census forms before April 2010. The Census is too important to be damaged by last minute changes.Read More
Source: thecensusproject.org
RECENT ACTIVITY
Prison Policy Initiative
In 2010, the United States will undertake its 23rd decennial census of our population. Much is at stake. The Census affects more than $300 billion per year in state and federal funding for local communities. Just as important, the Census is used to apportion seats in the US House of Representatives and to redistrict s...tate legislators, ultimately shaping our electoral power as citizens and members of local communities. The Census informs the decisions of political leaders, determines school district assignment areas, defines legislative districts, and affects the representation of communities and groups in government. The Census, in short, is a snapshot of who we are as a nation, providing information that affects decisions ranging from the provision of services to the elderly; to the construction of new roads and schools; to the safeguarding of electoral competitiveness, voting rights, and representative democracy. In addition, following the 22nd Census, the 2010 Census will include a "multiracial" category in the counting and mapping of community populations across the nation, raising a host of questions about the political, legal, and ethical problems created by the uncertainty of counting and classifying multiracial individuals.
This multi-scholar panel of academic experts from a range of fields will discuss the implications of the 2010 Census with an emphasis on the affects of the Census and political apportionment on race and representation. How does the inclusion of a "multiracial" category in the US Census both reflect the fiction of exclusive racial categories and create new problems for safeguarding the civil rights of racial minority populations? How do political and partisan leaders attempt to draw district boundaries so as to maximize institutional and electoral power? How do new technologies make it possible for legislatures to "gerrymander" districts for partisan advantage? What is a "community of interest," and how are these communities determined by race, or by "natural" geographical boundaries? Are "majority-minority" districts a legitimate response to historical discrimination faced by African American and Latino communities, or do such districts give unfair preferences to one section of the population? How does the counting of the population and the drawing of district lines shape the political and racial landscape of minority and majority communities, and what are the ethical dilemmas raised in the drawing of these political boundaries?
Panelists include Peter Wagner, Executive Director of the Prison Policy Iniative; Bruce Cain, Professor of Political Science at the University of California--Berkeley; and Aitya Stokes-Brown, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bucknell University Read More
This multi-scholar panel of academic experts from a range of fields will discuss the implications of the 2010 Census with an emphasis on the affects of the Census and political apportionment on race and representation. How does the inclusion of a "multiracial" category in the US Census both reflect the fiction of exclusive racial categories and create new problems for safeguarding the civil rights of racial minority populations? How do political and partisan leaders attempt to draw district boundaries so as to maximize institutional and electoral power? How do new technologies make it possible for legislatures to "gerrymander" districts for partisan advantage? What is a "community of interest," and how are these communities determined by race, or by "natural" geographical boundaries? Are "majority-minority" districts a legitimate response to historical discrimination faced by African American and Latino communities, or do such districts give unfair preferences to one section of the population? How does the counting of the population and the drawing of district lines shape the political and racial landscape of minority and majority communities, and what are the ethical dilemmas raised in the drawing of these political boundaries?
Panelists include Peter Wagner, Executive Director of the Prison Policy Iniative; Bruce Cain, Professor of Political Science at the University of California--Berkeley; and Aitya Stokes-Brown, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bucknell University Read More
An Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion
Time:7:00PM Wednesday, November 4th
Location:Muhlenberg College, Miller Forum, Moyer Hall
