Arizona communities would 'collapse' without cheap prison labor, Corrections director says

[cbabe]

5. Prisoners in census count affects representation

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/2020-census-prison-population_n_5a7cb966e4b044b3821b0507

Prisoners Where They Are Incarcerated
The decision could affect how future legislative districts are drawn.

By
Sam Levine
Feb 8, 2018, 05:12 PM EST | Updated Feb 8, 2018

The 2020 census will continue to count incarcerated people as residents of the place they are imprisoned instead of their homes, a decision critics say can target prisoners and give unfair political power to the rural areas where prisons are located.

State officials use the population from the census when they redraw legislative districts, something required by the U.S. Constitution every 10 years. Each district must have roughly the same amount of people in it, and counting prisoners as part of an area’s population can inflate its population and the political influence of the people who vote there.

Just two states in the country ― Maine and Vermont ― allow people convicted of felonies to vote while they are incarcerated.

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Need to keep districts red.