ENDING THE PRISON WINDFALL

The Census Bureau typically uses the decennial census to test
data-collection methods that become routine later on. The 2010 census
should include a test run at counting the nation's 1.4 million prison
inmates at their permanent addresses instead of in prisons. That
would help bring an end to a corrosive but little known practice that
distorts the political process in virtually every corner of the country.

Inmates are denied the right to vote in all but two states. But state
lawmakers treat them as residents of the prisons when drawing
legislative maps, to inflate the head count in lightly populated
rural areas where prisons are typically built. This creates
legislative districts where none would ordinarily be, shifting
political influence from the heavily populated urban districts where
inmates live.

Once inflated, these towns and counties siphon an outsized portion of
state and federal aid. Politicians in districts with prisons
sometimes brag openly about the windfall, as they mock "constituents"
who are powerless to remove them from office and are packed onto
buses and driven hundreds of miles to their real homes the minute
they leave the prison walls.

The Census Bureau was made pointedly aware of this problem last fall.
A report it commissioned noted that counting inmates at prisons
distorted the political process and raised legitimate concerns about
the fairness of the census itself. That report, by the National
Research Council, recognized that the methods would not be simple to
change, but urged the bureau to seeks ways to do it.

Collecting and verifying residential information for prison inmates
is a complicated job. But the report suggested a perfectly reasonable
interim solution. The bureau could publish detailed counts of the
prison populations, so that the inmates could be subtracted at
redistricting time. These figures would illuminate corrupt
redistricting committees that use prison counts to pad districts that
fall short of federal population requirements.

The Census Bureau has a crucial role to play in putting and end to
this despicable practice. The 2010 census is as good a time as any to
get started.