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Prisons and the Census

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July 20, 2010

Prison Gerrymandering Still An Issue For the Eastern Shore

African-Americans need a foothold in Somerset County's all white power structure

Your Public Radio

By Karen Hosler

Deborah Jeon, legal director of American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland who has studied Somerset County for more than two decades, said she's been struck by how effectively blacks have been excluded.

"Somerset County seems to me different than almost any other place in America in that it has a very significant African-American population-- depending upon whose counting 42 percent or 35 percent, if you exclude the folks who are incarcerated there -- and yet, in all of history the county has never elected an African-American to the county commission or any top job in county government or had such a person serve by appointment."

The glaring inequity made Somerset County the poster child for legislation enacted this year by the General Assembly that will change the way prison inmates are counted in election districts. When the new lines are drawn using 2010 census numbers, inmates will be tallied at their last known address instead of where they are incarcerated.

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