Disagreement over inmates and Census in Minnesota

Minnesota is in a deep debate over which districts will be able to count inmates in the 2010 census after the U.S. Census Department’s decision to allow states to make the decision, according to MinnPost.

The League of Women Voters-Minnesota has taken an active stance in counting prisoners in their home towns.

“Our interest in this issue is that counting prisoners where they are results in a simultaneous inflation and dilution issue,” said Keesha Gaskins,  executive director of the LWVMN.

Gaskins explained that by counting prisoners in the counties where the prison is located, the political influence of actual county residents is inflated.

Sen.  Linda Higgins, chair of the Finance Committee’s Public Safety Budget Division, plans to introduce a bill that will exclude prisoners from the redistricting process. Higgins drafted the proposal based on the principle that counties receive federal funds based on the percentage of low-income residents, children or minorities.

“We know there’s a higher percentage of people of color in prisons in Minnesota than in the general Minnesota population,” said Higgins to the MinnPost. “So, if you use those statistics from correctional institutions, then that legislative district gets a skewed amount of money for resources that are supposed to go to low-income communities and people of color.”

Chair of the State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, said she isn’t comfortable with the idea of not counting prisoners every time.

“It sounds a little like having your cake and eating it, too,” she said. “I’d be very interested in what consistent, reliable argument could be made to count them (prisoners) for reapportionment and how many Congress members you get,  but then not count them in the state districts.”

According to MinnPost, Hennepin and Ramsey counties hold Minnesota’s largest urban population and sentenced the largest proportions of prisoners currently in state institutions. Based on last July’s population of 9,353 state prisoners, Hennepin County sentenced 25.4 percent and Ramsey County sentenced 15.7 percent of the population. Next in line were these counties: Dakota (4.8 percent), Anoka (3.9 percent), St. Louis (3.9 percent) and Olmsted (3.8 percent.)

The U of M Humphrey Institute’s Smart Politics blog prepared an analysis late last year that showed Minnesota’s prison population also had the second-largest increase in the nation between 2000 and 2008.

One alternative proposed is to remove the prison population from redistricting data as an interim solution.