Prison Gerrymandering Has Oversized Effect on Political Power in New Mexico
States and counties have been faced with the task of redistricting by early 2022 based on the 2020 census. The process always comes with controversy as each political party attempts to consolidate influence and votes. One aspect that is rarely addressed and has an oversized impact on largely rural states like New Mexico is prison gerrymandering. The process includes prisoners incarcerated in a district that are counted in the population of that district. For New Mexico, where prisons are often located in counties with relatively low populations, counting prisoners who have no residence or roots in the area can have extremely harmful consequences on the influence of districts compared to their population.
New Mexico also has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, New Mexico incarcerates 733 per every 100,000 people, which means that New Mexico locks up more people than any other state per capita.
The national movement against prison gerrymandering began in 2001 when the founders of the Prison Policy Initiative discovered that the sheer size of the prison population was combined with an outdated Census Bureau rule to seriously distort how political decisions are made in this country.
For rural counties the addition of a large population who is unable to vote has given residents in that county exaggerated power where the prisons are located. Because prisoners are counted for the community they’re incarcerated in, their home communities lose out on population and lose political power.
Read more: https://abq.news/2021/12/prison-gerrymandering-has-oversized-effect-on-political-power-in-new-mexico/