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Wednesday’s Hotlinks – May 12, 2010

A whole lot of corrections news to get to, so let's jump right in...

The Enid Community CorrectionsCenter in Oklahoma recently received its fourth perfect accreditation in the past four years. Let’s applaud the administration staff and officers for this achievement.

The Duluth City Council passes a new ordinance limiting where Level 3 predatory offenders can live. The ordinance takes effect in about four weeks.

In related news, Corrections.comwrites a fascinating article on the comprehensive approach to sex offender management. Definitely a must read for anyone involved with sex offender management, from rookies to veterans.

In a ‘thinking outside the box’ approach to reducing recidivism, the Indiana DOC has developed a talent show for inmates. As silly as it sounds from reading the headline, this could be a great way to reduce recidivism.

Back in February, I wrote a post on how to count inmates for the 2010 Census pitted urban lawmakers versus their rural counterparts. Here, Correctionsone.com and the AP write a spotlight article of this debate going on in Maryland. (To give myself an ego boost, let’s just pretend I gave the AP the idea for this article!)

 

And finally, you’re weird news story of the week…

A man, dressed as beloved cartoon character Snoopy, tries to break into a British prison. The firearm ‘Snoopy’ was carrying turned out to be a water pistol. In the words of Charlie Brown…’Good Grief’. 

Counting Inmates in Census 2010 Debate

  The debate on how to count inmates for the 2010 Census project is heating up across the country. If you recall, I touched on this subject a few weeks ago. Well, over in Illinois, Chicago Democrat Rep. La Shawn Ford has sponsored HR4650, which in effect would count inmates from their last known current address, instead of the place where they're housed at. According to Rep. Ford, about 45,000 of the state inmate population come from Cook County (Chicago).

In Minnesota, State Senator Linda Higgins is planning on introducing a bill that would exclude counting inmates during the legislative redistricting process. "Part of the reason we do a census every 10 years is for the allocation, particularly for federal funds, and it's based on the population" quoted Sen. Higgins.

 

Here are few other hotlinks on the inmate census issue:

The Utica Observer-Dispatch writes in this editorial why the Census shouldn't count prisoners with voters.

The New York Times writes about a new option the Census Bureau is giving to states about how to exactly identify group quarters, such as inmates, for the May 2011 Congressional and legislative reapportionment.

The Iowa Independent reports on the effect of this new option (see above) on Iowan communities.

 

So, what are your thoughts?  How should your state count inmates? Let your thoughts and opinions be heard in the comments section below!

To be, or not to be (counted in the Census 2010 that is)

  Imagine if you will that the Mayor of your hometown calls your house one night after dinner.  He's asked you to take a headcount of everyone in town and report back to him with your findings within a week. After you tell him (or her) a few choice words, you begrudgingly go about knocking on doors in town.

Finally, a week later you're done! Sure, you have a black eye and some stitches because old man Johnson released his bulldog after you, but you're officially done. But wait a second. Did you count all the inmates at the county jail? No? Should you? The Mayor is surely going to expect that you did.

Okay, so you call up the Warden and he told you that he has 234 inmates residing at his facility. After hanging up, you add 234 residents to your sheet. Should you have added 234 or just the inmates that are originally from your hometown, and not from the little town in the northern part of the county?

That is the debate going on right now as the 2010 Census kicks off in March.  Traditionally in the past, prisoners locked up in corrections facility has been counted for that particular city the prison is in.  For example, SCI Huntingdon in Pennsylvania houses prisoners from all over the state. When it comes time for tax dollars then to be allotted out to each district, Huntingdon will show they have X number of residents when the reality is they have Y number of residents.

Proponents of having hometowns of prisoners counted in the census argue that this policy is driving government money away from urbanized areas, where a majority of prisoners originate from, towards rural areas that house the correctional facilities. At stake is the estimated $400 billion in federal aid that is expected to be distributed within the next 10 years.

As you can see, with that amount of money up for grabs, you can be sure there will be some politicking and fighting going on for this debate. So readers, what is your opinion? Is your corrections facility in a rural area with the majority of prisoners from an urbanized area? Let your thoughts be heard in the comments section below!