In 2010, New York State passed legislation to end prison gerrymandering. The New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, in an amendment to the census, essentially takes every person incarcerated in state prisons and reallocates them to their last known address.1
Before this legislation, each incarcerated person in state prisons was counted as part of the community where the prison they’re housed in is located. This inflates populations of communities with prisons in them, giving them more political influence and community resources. Which, effectively takes away those resources from the communities where the incarcerated individuals actually call home. Additionally, what it suggests is that the incarcerated individuals are a part of the community they’re housed in, fully ignoring that they have no rights whatsoever within the prison walls and especially in the larger community surrounding the correctional facility. By reassigning incarcerated individuals to their homes; communities, and political districts, are more accurately represented which allows community resources to be equitably allocated.
The amendment data from the Task Force ultimately allows us to see where each incarcerated individual in New York state comes from. Not only is this information useful when drawing legislative districts, but it is incredibly useful in seeing the impact incarceration has on communities, and vice versa.
In an attempt to see how poverty is criminalized in the United States, I’ve mapped New York City’s incarcerated population from April 2020 across the neighborhoods of the five boroughs, along with economic data, such as median income, poverty rate and housing burden rate. Then, I zoomed in even further to the borough I live in, Brooklyn, and took a closer look at two neighborhoods on the opposite ends of the spectrum. What this data ultimately tells us is that poverty and incarceration are closely linked.
NYC Incarceration Rates
In April 2020, there were 42,492 people incarcerated in New York State prisons, 39,027 of which were successfully reassigned to their last known address before entering a DOCCS facility.2 16,314 (38%) of whom are from New York City’s five boroughs. This number does not include people incarcerated in jails and federal prisons across the state.
Richer communities see lower incarceration rates
This graph shows that across New York City, neighborhoods with higher median household incomes lose less of their neighbors to incarceration. On the other hand, low income neighborhoods see higher incarceration rates.
Communities burdened by housing costs see higher incarceration rates
According to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, “affordable housing is generally defined as housing on which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of gross income for housing costs, including utilities.”3 One can infer that spending more than 30 percent of income on housing costs would deem such housing unaffordable. Neighborhoods with more residents in unaffordable housing also see more of their community incarcerated.
Poverty and incarceration rates linked
As we saw with median household income and housing burden, economic factors are linked to incarceration rates. That is no different when comparing poverty and incarceration rates across neighborhoods.
Brooklyn Heights, a well-off community on the Brooklyn waterfront with views of the Statue of Liberty, sees only 8 of its over 25,000 residents incarcerated in state prisons. In stark contrast is Brownsville, a low-income neighborhood in central Brooklyn, with more than double the population and more than 22 times the rate of incarceration. These neighborhoods are only 6 miles away from one another, that’s about 40 minutes by subway (14 local stops), or 45 minutes by car.
This table is not here to say that Brownsville is a more dangerous or crime ridden community than Brooklyn Heights. It is to say that Brownsville is a low-income community with one third of its residents below the poverty level, over half of its households burdened by housing costs and with 7 out of every 1,000 residents incarcerated in New York State prisons. Regardless of whether economic factors affect incarceration or vice versa, what we know is there’s a correlation, no matter the causation.
Conclusion
I think it’s safe to say that American culture teaches us to believe that if someone is in prison, they are there for a reason – that the prison sentence is earned, justice is served. That train of thought goes something like this: a criminal did something illegal, got caught and got what they deserved. If you don’t do anything wrong, you won’t go to prison. But, this thought process assumes that everyone in prison had a choice. When you grow up poor in America, you don’t have the same choices that are afforded to the higher economic classes. You have to do what you can to survive, and then maybe you can claw your way out.
The correlation of incarceration rates and economic factors, such as median household income, housing burden and poverty rates does not mean that being poor in New York City is a prison sentence, but it does mean you’re more likely to be incarcerated than your well-to-do neighbor.
A Final Note
For this analysis, I did not take every single economic factor into consideration, just as I didn’t take non-economic factors into consideration. There are other obvious factors to look at when talking about incarceration in the United States, such as race and education. By focusing solely on the economic factors, I do not wish to ignore other factors that contribute to incarceration, I only wish to emphasize the toll that economic inequality takes on our communities.
Sources
- Prisoners of the Census, https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/NYS_A9710-D.html
- NYS Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, https://www.latfor.state.ny.us/data/?sec=2020amendpop
- United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, https://archives.hud.gov/local/nv/goodstories/2006-04-06glos.cfm
- US Census 2020, https://data.census.gov/cedsci/
- American Community Survey 5 Year Estimates (2016-2020), https://data.census.gov/cedsci/
Alexandra McGlinchy 