Section III: The Prison Economy

Prisoners and the Census

• Percentage of prisoners counted by the decennial Census as residents where they are incarcerated rather than at their homes534: 100%

• Percentage of New York prisoners from New York City535: 65.5%
• Percentage of New York prisoners from the upstate region536: 24.2%
• Percentage of New York prisoners incarcerated in an upstate prison537: 91%
• Percentage of New York prisons built since 1982 upstate538: 100%

• Year New York State sent jail inmate Michael Cady to prison for using his jail address to register to vote539: 1893
• Number of years Cady had lived at the Tombs jail540: 7
• Approximate number of times Cady confessed to vagrancy so he could stay for another 6 months541: 14
• Percent of New York State Court of Appeals justices who voted to uphold the conviction because a prison cannot be a residence address542: 100%
• Likely number of current New York State prisoners who choose to live at the prison the way Michael Cady did: 0

• Number of New York State Senate districts based in part on prisoners that don't live in the district543: 23
• Number of Senate districts that are at least 2% prisoners544: 4
• Number of New York State Assembly districts based in part on prisoners that don't live in the district545: 34
• Number of Assembly districts that are at least 2% prisoners546: 10

• Percentage of new district belonging to Redistricting Taskforce member Chris Ortloff that is prisoners547: 6.99%
• Number of African-American adults in Ortloff's district548: 5,594
• Percent of African-American adults in Ortloff's district who are barred by law because they are prisoners from ever voting for or against him549: 82.6%

• Year the Supreme Court first ruled that the 14th Amendment required legislative districts to be based on equal population and the principle of "one person one vote"550: 1964
• Number of years where New York has not counted prisoners as residents of legislative districts where they are incarcerated551: 0

This page is an excerpt from The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (2003) by Peter Wagner, published by the Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative. Footnotes for all facts are available in the print version.