Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — Prisoners will soon be bigger players in those high-stakes redistricting fights, even if unwittingly, thanks to a change in federal policy governing how they’re to be counted in the 2010 census.
Prison populations have historically been included in national head counts, but now census officials will make data on inmates available to states earlier than in the past.
This change will allow states to decide whether to count inmates for the purposes of redistricting. If a state makes that choice, it would have to decide where inmates should be considered residents — in rural towns, where prisons often are, or in cities, where many prisoners hail from.
