ST. PAUL, Minn. — In drawing new political districts, Minnesota has joined a growing list of states that plan to count prisoners at their homes rather than in the prisons they are in.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed legislation last week saying last known addresses will be used for counting inmates, not the federal or state prisons where they are housed. Inmates whose last address is out of state or whose address is unknown are excluded from the redistricting process, although they will be counted in Minnesota’s population total under the new law signed by the Democratic governor.
Eighteen states have already made similar changes to the way prisoners are counted during the once-a-decade count. Most, but not all, states are controlled by Democrats and have large urban centers.
Although the U.S. Census Bureau has counted prisoners as prison residents since 1850, states control redistricting and can move these populations to their home states for that purpose or not include prisoners at all when the maps are drawn.
Supporters of the changes have argued that counting prisoners in their institutions shifts resources from traditionally liberal urban centers — where many inmates are disproportionately black and Hispanic — to rural, white, Republican areas where prisons are typically located.
Opponents, however, argue that cities with prisons need federal money for the additional costs they impose, such as medical care, law enforcement and road maintenance.
Population data collected from the census is used to draw new political districts at the federal, state, and local levels every ten years during the redistricting process.