Mapping where people in New York prisons come from
Prison Policy Initiative updates for February 19, 2020 Showing how mass incarceration harms communities and our national welfare
Prison Policy Initiative releases detailed data on the "geography of incarceration" in New York state, opening doors for future research [[link removed]] The new resource uses data generated by New York’s law ending prison gerrymandering. [[link removed]]
This morning, we released a new project mapping where people in New York state prisons come from, down to the neighborhood level — providing a groundbreaking tool for studying how incarceration relates to community wellbeing.
The project, Mapping Disadvantage: The Geography of Incarceration in New York, [[link removed]] provides anonymized residence data for everyone in New York state prisons at the time of the 2010 Census. Readers can download the data at several geographic levels, including counties, cities, and legislative districts.
"If you want to study how mass incarceration has impacted specific communities in New York, or how incarceration tracks with other indicators of community health, we've just published the geographic data you need to do that," said Research Director Wendy Sawyer.
In a short report, produced in collaboration with VOCAL-NY, [[link removed]] we provide examples of what can be done with the new dataset. The report shows that:
In New York City neighborhoods with high rates of asthma among children, incarceration rates are also significantly higher. In city school districts, 5th grade math scores are very strongly correlated with neighborhood incarceration rates. Across the state of New York, every 1% increase in a particular Census tract's unemployment rate is correlated with an uptick in the incarceration rate.
A landmark 2010 law made this mapping project possible. In 2010, New York passed a bill [[link removed]] ensuring that people in prison would be counted as residents of their hometowns at redistricting time. This reform ended the electoral distortion known as "prison gerrymandering," which had given extra political influence to the legislative districts that contained large prisons. The law required the state prison system to share its own records of where incarcerated people actually resided with redistricting officials. Using these records, redistricting officials produced a corrected dataset that they used to draw new district lines, and we repurposed this dataset for our report.
For the 2020 round of redistricting a total of seven states — California, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Washington — have passed legislation to end prison gerrymandering and nine additional states — Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wisconsin — have legislation pending.
"These states are passing laws to end prison gerrymandering because they believe that everyone should have the same access to political power, regardless of whether they live next to a large prison. But these laws also have a secondary positive impact: they can make a deeper understanding of our criminal justice system possible," said Executive Director Peter Wagner.
Read the full report at [link removed]. [[link removed]]
Please support our work [[link removed]]
Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!
Other news: Our landmark report on "stop-and-frisk" in New York City [[link removed]]
In our 2017 report, [[link removed]] we examined the raw NYPD data on stop-and-frisk in 2011, the peak year for stop-and-frisk in New York City. That year, police made 685,724 stops — almost 2,000 stops every single day. Our analysis shows that the NYPD used physical force in almost a quarter of stops, and that their use of force is also racially discriminatory.
We're hiring - apply to join our team! [[link removed]]
Do you want to help produce research to combat mass incarceration? We're looking for someone to join our team as a Staff Attorney, Research Analyst, Research Associate, or Policy Fellow. (In other words, apply for the position that fits your skills best, because our needs are flexible.) For more information, see [link removed]. [[link removed]]
Please support our work [[link removed]]
Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!
Our other newsletters Ending prison gerrymandering ( archives [[link removed]]) Criminal justice research library ( archives) [[link removed]]
Update which newsletters you get [link removed].
You are receiving this message because you signed up on our website [[link removed]] or you met Peter Wagner or another staff member at an event and asked to be included.
Prison Policy Initiative [[link removed]]
PO Box 127
Northampton, Mass. 01061
Web Version [link removed] Unsubscribe [link removed] Update address / join other newsletters [link removed] Donate [[link removed]] Tweet this newsletter [link removed] Forward this newsletter [link removed]
You are receiving this message because you signed up on our website or you met Peter Wagner or another staff member at an event and asked to be included.
Prison Policy Initiative
PO Box 127 Northampton, Mass. 01061
Web Version [link removed] | Update address [link removed] | Unsubscribe [link removed] | Share via: Twitter [link removed] Facebook [[link removed] Email [link removed]
