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Anamosa IA: 58 non-prisoners and 1,300 non-voiting prisoners make up one ward

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

October 24, 2008 Census Bureau?s Counting of Prisoners Benefits Some Rural Voting Districts By SAM ROBERTS, NY Times Danny R. Young, a 53-year-old backhoe operator for Jones County in eastern Iowa, was elected to the Anamosa City Council with a total of two votes ? both write-ins, from his wife and a neighbor. While the Census Bureau says Mr. Young?s ward has roughly the same population as the city?s three others, or about 1,400 people, his constituents wield about 25 times more political clout. That is because his ward includes 1,300 inmates housed in Iowa?s largest penitentiary ? none of whom can vote. Only 58 of the people who live in Ward 2 are nonprisoners. That discrepancy has made Anamosa a symbol for a national campaign to change the way the Census Bureau counts prison inmates...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).