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11 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 229 (2003-2004)
Counting Matters: Prison Inmates, Population Bases, and one Person, One Vote

handle is hein.journals/vajsplw11 and id is 237 raw text is: COUNTING MATTERS: PRISON INMATES, POPULATION BASES, AND ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman I. INTRODUCTION America's prisons currently house 1.4 million inmates,1 more than six times the number incarcerated when the Supreme Court first applied the one person, one vote doctrine to legislative districting.2 Virtually all of these inmates are disenfranchised,3 as are many ex-inmates,4 and the growing impact that felon disenfranchisement has on the political process has received much recent attention from scholars and news media.5 Surprisingly few of these scholars, however, have noted that the incarceration process plays a second important role in shaping the Duke University, J.D. expected 2004; B.A., Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. The author would like to acknowledge Michael Munger and Bruce Stinebrickner for their useful advice and helpful comments on drafts of this article. The author extends special thanks to Kelsey Kauffman for her assistance in collecting data as well as her careful reading of various drafts. 1 SENTENCING PROJECT, FACTS AB3OUT PRISONS AND PRISONERS, at http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1035.pdf (last visited Aug. 27, 2003). 2 The Supreme Court first applied the doctrine to the apportionment of congressional districts in Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, 7-8, 18 (1964), and to state legislative districts in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 576 (1964). In 1964, state and federal correctional institutions held 214,336 sentenced prisoners. U.S. DEPT. OF JUSTICE BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS, SOURCEBOOK OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE STATISTICS 1998 490 (Kathleen Maguire & Ann L. Pastore eds., 1999). 3 Prison inmates are disenfranchised in every state except Maine and Vermont. SENTENCING PROJECT, FELONY DISENFRANCHISEMENT LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES, at http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1046.pdf (last visited Aug. 27, 2003). 4 Felony parolees are disenfranchised in thirty-three states, felony probationers in twenty-nine, and anyone ever convicted of a felony in six. Id. 5 See, e.g., Christopher Uggen & Jeff Manza, Democratic Contraction? Political Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 67 AM. SOC. REV. 777, 787-94 (2002); JAMIE FELLNER AND MARC MAUER, LOSING THE VOTE: THE IMPACT OF FELONY DISENFRANCHISEMENT LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES (1998), at http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/9080.pdf (last visited Oct. 13, 2003); Sasha Abramsky, A Growing Gap in American Democracy, NY TIMES, July 27, 2002, at A1l; Michael A. Fletcher, Voting Rights for Felons Win Support; 13% of Black Men Ineligible with Ban, WASH. POST, Feb. 22, 1999, at AO 1.

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