Prisoner don't count

The following writing sample was submitted as an opinion article to both a progressive website and a local news paper.

                                        Prisoners don’t count!

Baltimore’s Mayor, it’s City Council President, and the vast majority of it’s council members are members of the Democratic party, yet they have failed to introduce legislation, or make any noise in the media on an issue that is extremely important to the citizens they represent, their political self interest, the political party they claim membership in, and the principles of Democracy!

In 2010, America will once again conduct a head count of all its citizens.   This count, known as the 10 year census, with its far reaching political and economic implications, should be subject to intense scrutiny.    As the largest city in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, Baltimore’s Democratic politicians should be wedded to the notion that they must support legislative initiatives that further the principles of both the democratic process and the Democratic Party.   The 2010 Census, as it is currently administered, demonstrates fealty to neither and in fact does offense to both!

Under current law, all inmates in local jails, state and federal prisons are counted as if they were residents of the communities where they are incarcerated.    As a result of this practice, the political and economic benefits that accompany the census count (Congressional seats are apportioned based on population), are enjoyed by the mostly rural and Republican leaning communities where the prisons are built.   The benefit to these communities comes at the expense of the communities from which the prisoners lived prior to their incarceration and to which they will likely return.

The Census Bureau defends this practice by suggesting that this is the only method that can accurately account for this population because attempting to determine the actual “pre-incarceration” residence of this population is extremely difficult and therefore impractical!    Really!   So government policy is now determined by what is expedient rather then what is right!   Baltimore’s Democratic politicians should explore the radical, yet democratically consistent possibly that prisoners, if they can’t be counted as part of their pre-incarceration communities, they should not be counted at all!

Such a position would be radical, in that it goes against long standing practice, but it is democratically consistent in that inmates are possessed of almost no characteristics associated with citizenship.    Prisoners have limited 1^st Amendment rights, enjoy the free exercise of their chosen religion, and are protected against cruel and unusual punishment.    That’s basically it!   In contrast, citizens who aren’t saddled with a criminal record enjoy all of the rights and privileges (the entire Bill of Rights) commensurate with American citizenship. 

There is another, more compelling reason why current practice should be halted and Baltimore’s democratic politicians should be demanding that this policy be changed.   It encourages recidivism in that the resource poverty of the communities from which many of the inmates resided pre-incarceration are deprived of the additional financial resources that their actual population numbers would warrant and it concentrates that poverty and therefore crime (poverty’s constant companion) in these Districts!   When these men return to these communities after they have finished their time in jail, they are surrounded by many of the same conditions which led them to run astray of the law in the first place.   Thus, there is a dearth of available jobs, they have a “resume crippling” criminal record, and the lure of the streets to contend with.    It’s a well know, yet largely ignored fact that very few crimes are committed by anyone during their commute to work!

It is also significant to note that most of the men who reside in these penal institutions would likely not vote for the politicians whose political life is made possible by their “involuntary” presence in these institutions.   It’s likewise important to note that many of the politicians who benefit from this “artificial” increase in population favor more “tough of crime” legislation.   In fact, the marrying of the Census’s treatment of prisoners to political reapportionment actually incentivizes our current “lock-em-up” mentality!  

While this is an issue that all Democrats should be concerned about, Baltimore’s democratic politicians should be in the forefront of this fight because current Census practice deprives many of the high crime communities they represent of the financial and political benefits to which they are rightly entitled, and which would help alleviate the resource poverty that continues to plagues these communities.   Current law is inconsistent with the principles of Democracy and the maintenance of this practice is, by definition, unpatriotic (assuming we can be patriotic about something other then war)!

Prisoners should not be counted!

Michael G. McFadden