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News :: Civil & Human Rights : Crime & Police : Political-Economy : Prisons |
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19 Counties in Illinois Imprison More Than Half Their Black Population |
Current rating: 0 |
by Prisoners of the Census.org
(No verified email address) |
10 May 2004
Modified: 10:38:42 PM |
Outdated methodology impairs Census Bureau's count of Black population
Shocking reality of a racist justice system
Census 2000 showed a number of rural counties in the West, Midwest and Northeast that more than doubled their Black populations over the previous decade. Is this some sort of reversal of the great migration that saw millions of Blacks leave the rural South for Northern cities? Is a new economic opportunity drawing Blacks to leave cities for rural places? Not quite.
Most of the counties shown by the Census Bureau to have the fastest growing Black populations (see counties marked in purple in the first map below), are counties with new prisons with large incarcerated Black populations. (Compare with second map below.) |
Click on image for a larger version  | Click on image for a larger version  | |
The Census Bureau counts incarcerated people as if they were residents of the prison town, even though prisoners have no contact with the outside community and are not there by choice. This methodology has staggering implications for how and where Black citizens are counted. On Census Day, 2.5% of Black Americans found themselves behind bars. Twelve percent of Black men in their 20s or early 30s are incarcerated. These figures are 7 to 8 times higher than the corresponding statistics for Whites. The Census Bureau's method of counting the incarcerated disproportionately counts Blacks in the wrong place.
Assigning the incarcerated to the prison address is an outdated method of collecting data that reduces the value of Census information about the racial makeup of our communities.
Brown County, Illinois, is the most extreme example. According to the Census, Brown County is 18% Black, more than all but 4 Illinois counties. Yet all but 5 of the 1,265 Blacks reported by the Census in Brown County are incarcerated residents of somewhere else. The large Black population of Brown County is a statistical fiction.
Brown County may have more of its Black population behind bars than any other county in the country, but it is not a unique glitch in the data. We found 256 counties that that have more than a quarter of their Black population behind bars. In 173 counties, more than half of the Black population is incarcerated. (See table below for list of counties. These figures deliberately understate our results, as we excluded from the above an additional 75 counties that have less than 100 Blacks incarcerated.)
This does not necessarily reflect a bias in counties' criminal justice systems; rather it reflects a geographic bias in where prisons are located. Prisons are often located far from the communities where most of the prisoners come from. By relying on the racial and geographic bias of the prison industry to determine the residence of the incarcerated, the Census introduces a racial and geographic bias into its data.
The Census Bureau has been counting people at the prisons since the first Census in 1790, long before the data was used for demographic analysis or legislative redistricting. The Supreme Court didn't coin the "One person one vote" principle, or require that state legislative districts comply with its requirement to draw equally sized districts until 1964. Congress didn't mandate the Census Bureau to assist with state redistricting until 1975. High incarceration itself is quite new, having interfered only with the last two U.S. Censuses in 1990 and 2000. (See Figure 3.) Times have changed.
To view detailed census data by county, see table at bottom of this page:
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/fact-3-5-2004.shtml |
See also:
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org
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Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
Comments
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Re: 19 Counties in Illinois Imprison More Than Half Their Black Population |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 May 2004
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Maybe the Census should be more interested in collecting numbers of "Americans" in specific locations rather than worrying about what color they happen to be?
And, it's a shame that our Nation is still not color blind within its Justice System. If it was, Teddy Kennedy would still be serving time in prison rather than serving as a Senator. Perhaps we can all agree that the problem isn't really that there are too many "Blacks" in prison, the problem is that there are not enough "criminals" of ALL colors there? After all, isn't the whole idea of prison to protect an innocent society from those who intend to do evil...no matter what color they happen to be? |
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Re: 19 Counties in Illinois Imprison More Than Half Their Black Population |
by John
johngergely (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
11 May 2004
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NRA,
I suspect there's a fundamental ideological rift between us of such substance and magnitude that it can't be resolved via an internet discussion forum, but for the sake of public discourse I submit the following for your consideration:
I reject the notion that all ("criminals") who are in prison comitted, intended to commit, or simply are evil. In fact, I reject the notion that it is possible for humans or any group of humans to define and identify evil or its influence in any other human. Even if one believes in the existence of inherent evil, in a rough Biblical sense, one would surely recognize as the exclusive province of God the prerogative and capacity to JUDGE that evil.
This need not be an abstract and personal debate about theology and faith, however. The more relevant practical analogue of this argument is that we recognize the raw reality of a society segregated by class and race (usually falling along the same lines) and our inability to fully appreciate the implications. Just because I have never been arrested, incarcerated, or imprisoned does not mean I have the right or authority to morally condemn anyone who has. Just because I have enjoyed social and economic privileges few in this nation (let alone world) have does not mean I can assert confidently how I would act, what decisions I would make under other circumstances - specifically in the context of far more difficult circumstances under which I had few options and under which no decision was a good decision. That is, I do not pretend that I have the authority to declare the actions and mistakes of others evil.
Finally, I think your criticism of Ted Kennedy emphasizes my point: people in positions of power and privilege are equally prone to mistakes, misdeeds, and crimes, it's just that their status and connections enable them to skate past the criminal justice system and avoid incarceration. But if we are to start scouring all members of our society, labeling as evil whoever has made a mistake, committed an indiscretion, or found him- or herself in a desparate situation we can't relate to, I doubt we'll have much of a society left when it's all over. I invite you to cast the first stone. |
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Re: 19 Counties in Illinois Imprison More Than Half Their Black Population |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 May 2004
|
John,
Ok, I painted with too broad a brush, as I did not intend to insinuate that "all" people in prison are "evil", at least not in a moral sense of the word. Leaving out those who have been falsly imprisoned, you could divide the prison population into any number of factions. Some of those factions would be pure evil, however you intend to define that term, others would be those who refuse to live by the laws of society to whatever extent, and like you infer, some would be those who made a possibly once in a lifetime "mistake".
"Evil"? Maybe, and maybe not.
And while you are correct that you cannot necessarily tell what someone "would" do or not do in any given situation, there is some level of morality and honesty that is inherent, or instilled, within most of the civilized population. But I believe that honesty and morals is a function of ones heart, not their reasoning mind. Therefore, I reject the idea that someones "situation" is necessarily the "reason" they choose to break the law. It may factor into it, but I don't believe that the core decision to do whatever criminal behavior they were imprisoned for stemmed "from" that.
And yes, in the ultimate end, I believe it will be God who judges the hearts of us all, but upon this earth, it is society and its laws...instituted by government...that must make the determination of whether someone resides in prison or not...based upon whatever judicial Standard that society institutes. So, you are correct, it is not up to us as individuals to "judge". But, it is up to that society...in fact, it is the burdon of that society...to attempt to uphold and enforce those laws and punishments in a fair and even handed manner regardless of color or status, and isn't that what we should strive for across the board? |
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Re: 19 Counties in Illinois Imprison More Than Half Their Black Population |
by bill gorrell
laborer (nospam) bement.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
11 May 2004
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The real point of this analysis is that communities with prisons get counted for federal and perhaps state aid disproporionally for their non-prisoner population while the low income home districts of the prisoners get less aid than they deserve.
As we should hope, more aid to low income areas may help lower their crine rates by providing residents of those areas with better educations and other productive opportunities.
This is a racial issue not because the aggregate number of black or other minority inmates in prison is higher than white people. It is a racial issue because aid to areas with disapporportionatlly high numders of residents who are inmates in other areas are not counted for their home areas in terms of government aid.
Thus, low crime rural areas gain aid that should alleviate crime in higher crime urban areas.
Another instance of how playing the race card disserves both sides by distorting the definition of the real problem. Low incomes lead to crime, no matter what the race of the perpetrator. Black communities are disaproportionatly low income do to historical reasons.
I have much experience with low income white people and they are as prone to criminality as low income black people. Guess what! My middle class blacke friends aren't criminals!
Rural white communities fight for prisons so that they can have more middle class jobs. Black communities suffer because the government aid they deserve follows the prisons. If this isn't a formula for failure I don't know what is.
NRA's plea to consider "Americans in prison" rather that break the numbers down to racial or even class proportions demonstrates his or her blindness to racism and classism in America.
By the way NRA, I don't care if you like guns, but if you don't get on the right side of the class struggle, you might not be able to afford the bullets. The establishment wins if they can keep you separated from your minority working class brothers and sisters.
The only thing that gives a governement power is its monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. |
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Re: 19 Counties in Illinois Imprison More Than Half Their Black Population |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
12 May 2004
|
Good post Bill. I chose to address what seemed to be an inference of racially motivated incarceration, rather than the point about distribution of tax dollars. I'd agree with your assessment of it except for the idea that "white communities fight for prisons" and that "low income leads to crime". Bad morals is what leads to crime. Low income does factor into it, but ultimately, it is a moral decision to break the law, period. And I'd agree some who are elected to govern white communities "fight for" prisons...because they want the jobs and revenue...but, the vast majority of the population would probably rather that those prisons be built elsewhere for safety concerns.
>"NRA's plea to consider "Americans in prison" rather that break the numbers down to racial or even class proportions demonstrates his or her blindness to racism and classism in America"
I think that you demonstrate the real racism here. To me, Americans are Americans. It should not matter in any way what color that American happens to be. I'd agree though that the prison population, regardless of color and for census purposes, should not be a part of the determinations for Federal or State funding for specific counties or states.
>"By the way NRA, I don't care if you like guns..."
A gun is a tool. It is used for defense, hunting, collecting, and sporting, among other things. I "like" America's Constitutional rights, unlike my liberal minded foes.
>"...but if you don't get on the right side of the class struggle, you might not be able to afford the bullets."
Since this is not a communist Nation, yet, the words "class struggle" don't mean a whole lot to me. I tend to attempt to see people as good or bad, honest or liars, regardless of their color or "class", however you intend to define that word.
>"The establishment wins if they can keep you separated from your minority working class brothers and sisters."
"Minority working class"? Are you saying that "working class" Americans are a "minority"? Or are you saying that only "minorities" are "working class"? Because I don't think either of those statements are fact. If someone is a honest hard working American who believes in the ideals of the Founders of this Nation, then they are ok by me.
>"The only thing that gives a governement power is its monopoly on the legitimate use of violence."
Not necessarily true at all. English "monopoly on the legitimate use of violence" didn't stop this Nation from being formed. What gives "government", ours anyway, the "power" is the people who vote and who duly elect others to represent them within the framework of government. What you say certainly does apply to communist and dictatorship type "governments" though, so, what was your point? |
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