Note to the Hood: Don’t Count on Prisoners
Prisons in Texas are said to be “big business”. We have many rural towns that have large prisons that serve as the major economic drivers for the schools, hospitals and jobs in this little know places. But as we engage in our decennial census count we must examine how these prison populations are being counted for the purpose of delivering services to Texas communities.
The Census Bureau requires that individuals are counted at the address where they reside as of April 1st . The Houston Chronicle reported that Harris, Bexar and three other large urban communities will lose about 67,000 residents to rural Texas because prison inmates are counted where they are in prison.
The problem then becomes that the prisoners who were convicted will not lend needed resources back to their home counties. Thus, urban areas that need more schools, jobs and programs will lose out due to how the count is taken at the national level.
What’s more, rural legislators are open to possibly gain seats that belong to inner city folks during reapportionment – 99 problems and it looks like the hood gets one more…
