PRISONER TRANSFERS REDUCE CENSUS COUNT

A spokesman for Gov. Tommy G. Thompson says the state will fight a
U.S. Census Bureau policy that counts prisoners housed in other states
as residents of those states.

The growing trend of shipping prisoners out of state could cost
Wisconsin a congressional seat after the 2000 census, warns Fred
Kessler, the former state legislator and judge who now works as an
arbitrator and redistricting consultant.

"We'll take an aggressive stand. They are Wisconsin residents being
housed at Wisconsin's expense," says Kevin Keane, the governor's press
secretary. "We want to keep our census numbers as high as possible."

At least one state demographer says that current population trends
indicate that Wisconsin will lose a seat in 2000 regardless of the
prisoner population. Under census rules, prisoners and other people
who are institutionalized are counted as residents of the state in
which the institution is located, said Denise Smith, a statistician in
the special population division of the Census Bureau.

It is similar to the rule for military personnel, who are counted as
residents of the state in which their bases are located. Military
personnel stationed overseas are counted as residents of their home
states.

Keane said it isn't fair for residency purposes to put prisoners in
the same category as military personnel at U.S. bases because the home
state is paying for the upkeep of prisoners.

Keane predicted that a number of states would join Wisconsin in
fighting the prisoner residency rule.

Rep. Joseph Handrick (R-Minocqua), chairman of the Assembly Committee
on the Census and Redistricting, said, "I agree with the governor that
it would be grossly unfair to count the prisoners as residents of
another state."

Handrick said he hoped that the Legislature and Wisconsin's
congressional delegation would help Thompson get the Census Bureau
policy changed.

Wisconsin nearly lost its ninth seat after the 1990 census. If
Wisconsin's population count had been 29,033 lower in 1990, the seat
would have been lost. The state is expected to face another close call
in the 2000 census.

The number of residents it must keep in order to hold onto the
congressional seat will not become clear until that census.

But demographer Paul Voss says, "I think we've already lost the seat
in 2000."

Voss closely tracks Wisconsin population trends as director of the
Applied Population Laboratory at the University Wisconsin Extension in
Madison.

Official U.S. census estimates show that Wisconsin is still gaining
population and "Wisconsin has nothing to be ashamed of regarding its
growth in the 1990s," Voss said.

But the state still is not growing as fast as the nation as a whole,
he said.

A Census Bureau projection made in October 1996 predicted that
Wisconsin would lose the seat in 2000 by 23,544 people, said
Washington consultant Kimball Brace, president of Election Data
Services, a firm that specializes in census and redistricting issues.

But population shifts have already made those 1996 projections out of
date for some states, and they may have changed the picture for
Wisconsin as well, Brace said.

The issue of housing Wisconsin prison inmates in other states has
received considerable attention.

The state has nearly 2,600 inmates in out-of-state prisons, more than
any other state in the nation, according to state prison figures. And
corrections officials have said they will seek budget authority next
year to increase the number to 8,000.

Checked-by: derek rea