1/ Mass incarceration and gerrymandering are both dire threats to America's democracy, but only today did I realize how intertwined they are.

I honestly had no idea that the US Census continues to count prisoners as residents of the place of confinement, *not* their hometowns.

2/ Not once since its inauguration in 1790 has the US Census updated this practice, despite the ballooning population of inmates.

This obviously funnels resources away from urban communities and dramatically distorts democratic representation at the state and local levels.

3/ Consider:

60% of Illinois' prisoners are from Cook County, yet 99% of them are counted outside the county.

In Texas, one rural district’s pop. is almost 12% prisoners. 88 residents of that district, then, are represented as if they were 100 residents from urban Houston."

4/ If you haven't read Ruth Wilson Gilmore's Golden Gulag, make sure you do:

https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520242012/golden-gulag

But also check out the Prison Gerrymandering Project, a one-stop-shop for advocacy and info. on this issue. https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/impact.html