Last Summer Census workers came to the prison to interview prisoners for inclusion in the upcoming 2010 Census.
I found this to be ironic because, after conferring with the Census worker as to why she was there, she stated that “for years prisoners had been overlooked and discounted because of their current status, but this is no longer the case.”
My questions to her were: “Why is it that now you want to include us in your census?” and “As a prisoner with no voting rights nor citizenship, I can now be counted as a citizen of St. Francois County, which is a rural community, predominately white, with a very small percentage of African Americans?”
This woman peered at me very strangely as to say: “Who am I to question her?” She, however, never answered my questions.
In these tough economic times, it matters when Federal and State dollars are at issue, and prisoners represent economic value to the counties in which they are located.
African Americans make up a large majority of the 20-plus prisons in this state. However, only two are located in the metropolitan cities of St. Louis (St. Louis Community Release Center) and Kansas City (Kansas City Community Release Center). The rest are located throughout rural Missouri counties that have been hardest hit in this recession.
And it matters when Federal and State officials consider redistricting, voting, and who and where the taxpayers’ dollars are awarded.
Darryl Luckett
Eastern Reception Diagnostic & Correctional Center
Bonne Terre, MO