Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T19:48:19.070Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SHIFTING POWER

The Impact of Incarceration on Political Representation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2019

Brianna Remster  and
Rory Kramer
Brianna Remster*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova University
Rory Kramer
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova University
*
*Corresponding author: Professor Brianna Remster, Department of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova University, 800 E. Lancaster Avenue, 19085. E-mail: brianna.remster@villanova.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

While prisoners cannot vote, they are counted as residents of the often rural legislative districts where they are incarcerated rather than their home districts. We examine the extent to which incarceration shifts the balance of a representative democracy by considering its impact on legislative apportionment. Drawing on data from the Census, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, and Pennsylvania Redistricting Commission, we develop a counterfactual framework to examine whether removing and returning prisoners to their home districts affects equal representation. Because prisoners are disproportionately African American, we also employ this counterfactual to assess racial differences in the impact of prison gerrymandering. Findings indicate that incarceration shifts political power from urban districts to suburban and rural districts through legislative apportionment. Moreover, non-White communities suffer the most. We conclude by considering how our findings fit a growing literature on the role of mass incarceration in [re]producing racial inequalities in the contemporary United States.

Keywords

Consequences of IncarcerationPolitical RepresentationPrison GerrymanderingRacial Inequality
Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Fall 2018 , pp. 417 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alabama (1901). Journal of the Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Alabama. Montgomery, AL: Brown Printing Co.Google Scholar
Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Beale, Calvin L. (1996). Rural Prisons: An Update. Rural Development Perspectives, 11: 25–27.Google Scholar
Beckett, Katherine (1997). Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics. New York: Oxford Press.Google Scholar
Behrens, Angela, Uggen, Christopher, and Manza, Jeff (2003). Ballot Manipulation and the “Menace of Negro Domination”: Racial Threat and Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 1850-2002. American Journal of Sociology, 109: 559–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burch, Traci R. (2012). Did Disenfranchisement Laws Help Elect President Bush? New Evidence on the Turnout Rates and Candidate Preferences of Florida’s Ex-Felons. Political Behavior, 34: 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burch, Traci R. (2014). Effects of Imprisonment and Community Supervision on Neighborhood Political Participation in North Carolina. ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 651: 184–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cain, Bruce E., Mac Donald, Karin, and McDonald, Michael (2005). From Equality to Fairness: The Path to Political Reform since Baker v. Carr. In Mann, T. and Cain, B. (Eds.), Party Lines: Competition, Partisanship, and Congressional Redistricting, pp. 6–30. Brookings Institute: Washington DC.Google Scholar
Chen, Jowei, and Rodden, Jonathan (2013). Unintentional Gerrymandering: Political Geography and Electoral Bias in Legislatures. Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 8: 239–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clear, Todd R. (2007). Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. New York: Oxford Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, Sarah K. (2015). Periodic Discordance Between Vote Equality and Representational Equality in the United States. Sociological Science, 2: 442–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. (1989). Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, Matt (2015). Republican Lawmaker Says Inmates Key to Defeating Corrine Brown. Politico Florida. <http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/florida/2015/09/8577571/republican-lawmaker-says-inmates-key-defeating-corrine-brown> (accessed October 1, 2015).+(accessed+October+1,+2015).>Google Scholar
Drake, John C. (2011). Locked Up and Counted Out: Bringing an End to Prison-Based Gerrymandering. Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 37: 237–265.Google Scholar
Garland, David (2001). The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaskins, Keesha, and Iyer, Sundeep (2012). Redistricting and Congressional Control: A First Look. Brennan Center for Justice, New York University. <http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/publications/Redistricting_Congressional_Control.pdf> (accessed July 25, 2018).+(accessed+July+25,+2018).>Google Scholar
Goedert, Nicholas (2014). Gerrymandering or Geography? How Democrats Won the Popular Vote but Lost the Congress in 2012. Research and Politics, 1–8.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1961). Asylums: Essays on the Social Situations of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Garden City, New Jersey: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Kaeble, Danielle, and Glaze, Lauren E. (2016). Correctional Populations in the United States, 2015. Bureau of Justice Statistics. <https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus15.pdf> (accessed January 25, 2017).+(accessed+January+25,+2017).>Google Scholar
Hamsher, David (2005). Counted Out Twice: Power, Representation and the “Usual Residence Rule” in the Enumeration of Prisoners: A State-Based Approach to Correcting Flawed Census Data. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 96: 299–328.Google Scholar
Ho, Dale (2011). Captive Constituents: Prison-Based Gerrymandering and the Current Redistricting Cycle. Stanford Law Review, 22(2): 355–394.Google Scholar
Jacobs, David, and Jackson, Aubrey (2010). On the Politics of Imprisonments: A Review of Systematic Findings. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 6: 129–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kajstura, Aleks (2016). 13 United States Senators ask Census Bureau to Count Incarcerated People at Home. <https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2016/09/30/13-senators/> (accessed January 26, 2017).+(accessed+January+26,+2017).>Google Scholar
King, Ryan S., Mauer, Marc, and Huling, Tracy (2003). Big Prisons, Small Towns: Prison Economics in Rural America. The Sentencing Project. <http://prison.ppjr.org/files/tracy%20huling%20prisons%20economy%20study.pdf> (accessed January 20, 2015).+(accessed+January+20,+2015).>Google Scholar
Lee, Hedwig, Porter, Lauren C., and Comfort, Megan (2014). Consequences of Family Member Incarceration: Impacts on Civic Participation and Perceptions of the Legitimacy and Fairness of Government. ANNALS of the American Academy of Political Science, 651: 44–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipton, Eric, and Urbina, Ian (2007). “In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud.” New York Times, April 12. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html> (accessed July 25, 2018).+(accessed+July+25,+2018).>Google Scholar
Logan, John R., and Stults, Brian J. (2011). The Persistence of Segregation in the Metropolis: New Findings from the 2010 Census. US2010 Project. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Lotke, Eric, and Wagner, Peter (2004). Prisoners of the Census: Electoral and Financial Consequences of Counting Prisoners Where They Go, Not Where They Come From. Pace Law Review, 24: 587–607.Google Scholar
Lublin, David (1999). The Paradox of Representation: Racial Gerrymandering and Minority Interests in Congress. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Manza, Jeff, and Uggen, Christopher (2006). Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., and Denton, Nancy (1993). American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, Michael P. (2011). Redistricting Developments of the Last Decade—and What’s on the Table in This One. Election Law Journal, 10: 313–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelberg, Tali (2001). The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mumola, Christopher (2000). Incarcerated Parents and Their Children. <http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/iptc.pdf> (accessed on May 3, 2009).+(accessed+on+May+3,+2009).>Google Scholar
National Conference of State Legislatures (n.d.). 2010 Constituents per State Legislative District Table. <http://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/2010-constituents-per-state-legislative-district.aspx> (accessed April 6, 2017).+(accessed+April+6,+2017).>Google Scholar
National Research Council Panel (2006). Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place: Residence Rules in the Decennial Census. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Pettit, Becky, and Western, Bruce (2004). Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration. American Sociological Review, 69: 151–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettit, Becky (2012). Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (2015). Annual Statistical Report, 2014. <http://www.cor.pa.gov/Administration/Statistics/Documents/Reports/2014%20Annual%20Statistical%20Report.pdf> (accessed March 28, 2016).+(accessed+March+28,+2016).>Google Scholar
Perman, Michael (2001). Struggle for Mastery: Disenfranchisement in the South, 1888-1908. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
PEW Charitable Trusts (2008). One in One Hundred: Behind Bars 2008. <http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/One%20in%20100.pdf> (accessed March 1, 2011).+(accessed+March+1,+2011).>Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham Jr. (2004). Political Representation in Comparative Politics. Annual Review of Political Science, 7: 273–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prisoner Policy Initiative. Prisoners of the Census Project. <http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/> (accessed July 6, 2015).+(accessed+July+6,+2015).>Google Scholar
Reamer, Andy (2010). County for Dollars: The Role of the Decennial Census on the Geographic Distribution of Federal Funds. Metropolitan Policy Program, Washington, DC: Brookings Foundation. <http://www.brookings.edu/∼/media/research/files/reports/2010/7/26-acs-reamer/0726_acs_reamer.pdf> (accessed January 29, 2017).+(accessed+January+29,+2017).>Google Scholar
Redding, Kent (2003). Making Race, Making Power: North Carolina’s Road to Disenfranchisement. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Rios, Victor M. (2011). Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, Donald L. (1971). Slavery in the Structure of American Politics. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J. (2012). Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlosser, Eric (1998). The Prison-Industrial Complex. Atlantic Monthly, 282: 51–77.Google Scholar
Schnittker, Jason, Massoglia, Michael, and Uggen, Christopher (2011). Incarceration and the Health of the African American Community. Du Bois Review, 8: 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shotts, Kenneth W. (2001). The Effect of Majority-Minority Mandates on Partisan Gerrymandering. American Journal of Political Science, 45(1): 120–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Taren (2004). Counting Matters: Prison Inmates, Population Bases, and One Person, One Vote. Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law, 11: 229–306.Google Scholar
Uggen, Christopher, and Manza, Jeff (2002). Democratic Contraction? The Political Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States. American Sociological Review, 67: 777–803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United States Census Bureau (2006). Tabulating Prisoners at Their “Permanent Home of Record” Address. <https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/pdf/2006-02-21_tabulating_prisoners.pdf> (accessed on July 1, 2015).+(accessed+on+July+1,+2015).>Google Scholar
United States Census Bureau (2010). Residence Rule and Residence Situations for the 2010 Census. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2010/resid_rules/resid_rules.html#TWO> (accessed on August 18, 2013).+(accessed+on+August+18,+2013).>Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Bureau of Prisons (2007). Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2004 [Computer file]. Compiled by U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-Consortium for Political and Social Research.Google Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc (2000). The New ‘Peculiar Institution’: On the Prison as Surrogate Ghetto.Theoretical Criminology, 4: 377–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc (2001). Deadly Symbiosis: When Ghetto and Prison Meet and Mesh. Punishment and Society, 3: 95–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc (2009). Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc (2010). Class, Race, and Hyperincarceration in Revanchist America. Daedalus, 140: 74–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, Peter (2002). Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in New York. Prison Policy Initiative. <http://www.prisonpolicy.org/importing/importing.html> (accessed September 9, 2014).+(accessed+September+9,+2014).>Google Scholar
Wagner, Peter, and Lavarreda, Elena (2009). Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Pennsylvania. Prison Policy Initiative Report. <http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/pennsylvania/importing.html> (accessed March 28, 2016).+(accessed+March+28,+2016).>Google Scholar
Wagner, Peter (2015). Momentum is Building. Prison Policy Initiative. <https://www.prisonpolicy.org/atlas/momentum.html> (accessed April 6, 2017).+(accessed+April+6,+2017).>Google Scholar
Wagner, Peter (2016). One Hundred Thousand People Call for an End to Prison Gerrymandering. Prison Policy Initiative. <https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2016/09/08/2016-comments/> (accessed January 26, 2017).+(accessed+January+26,+2017).>Google Scholar
Wakefield, Sara, and Uggen, Christopher (2010). Incarceration and Stratification. Annual Review of Sociology, 36: 387–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walmsley, Roy (2010). World Prison Population List. International Centre for Prison Studies. <http://www.idcr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/WPPL-9-22.pdf> (accessed September 15, 2014).+(accessed+September+15,+2014).>Google Scholar
Western, Bruce, and Beckett, Katherine (1999). How Unregulated is the U.S. Labor Market? The Penal System as a Labor Market Institution. American Journal of Sociology, 104: 1030–1060.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, William Julius (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner-City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wolfers, Justin, Leonhardt, David, and Quealy, Kevin (2015). 1.5 Million Missing Black Men. New York Times, April 20. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1> (accessed June 23, 2015).+(accessed+June+23,+2015).>Google Scholar
Wood, Erika (2014). Implementing Reform: How Maryland and New York Ended Prison Gerrymandering. <http://www.demos.org/publication/implementing-reform-how-maryland-new-york-ended-prison-gerrymandering> (accessed June 25, 2015).+(accessed+June+25,+2015).>Google Scholar
Zajac, Gary, and Kowalski, Lindsay (2012). An Examination of Pennsylvania Rural County Jails. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania. Center for Rural Pennsylvania. <http://www.rural.palegislature.us/documents/reports/rural_county_jails_2012.pdf> (accessed October 6, 2015).+(accessed+October+6,+2015).>Google Scholar