Question: Do the Hawaii prisoners in Arizona count in the census as being Arizona residents and adding to that state’s benefits, or do they still count as Hawaii residents? Also, can felons vote when they are in prison or when they get out after serving their sentences?
Answer: “The Hawaii prisoners in Arizona are counted as residents of Arizona,” said Peter Wagner, executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit working to end what it describes as “prison gerrymandering” that awards undue political clout to people who live near prisons.
About 1,300 men convicted and sentenced in Hawaii are held in the Saguaro Correctional Center, a private (for-profit) prison in Eloy, Ariz. The state of Hawaii has been sending inmates there for years. Arizona media reports say Hawaii inmates at Saguaro account for about 30% of Arizona’s total prison population, all of which counts toward Arizona’s total population as compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau — regardless of where the inmates are from or will return to for release (most are eventually eligible for release).
The decennial census — the nationwide count conducted every 10 years — is used to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the states, and also helps determine “how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding flow into communities every year for the next decade. That funding shapes many different aspects of every community, no matter the size, no matter the location,” according to the Census Bureau website.
The Prison Policy Initiative has been trying for years to get the bureau to change the way it counts inmates and will continue to press for changes ahead of the 2030 census, the effort having fallen short for 2020. You can read more about this at 808ne.ws/priger.
Nationwide, the Census Bureau assigns about 2 million inmates to prison locations, rather than to their home addresses.
As for your other questions, convicted felons in Hawaii cannot vote while they are incarcerated, but their voting rights are restored when they are released, whether on parole, probation or because they have served their full sentences, according to the state Office of Elections.
“A person sentenced for a felony, from the time of the person’s sentence until the person’s final discharge, may not vote in an election, but if the person is placed on probation or the person is paroled after commitment to imprisonment, the person may vote during the period of the probation or parole,” it says.
Probation and parole are forms of supervised release.
Only two states — Maine and Vermont — never take away a felon’s right to vote, even during incarceration, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Hawaii is among 16 states and the District of Columbia that restore voting rights upon release, while another 21 states wait until after parole and/or probation are served and another 11 impose further restrictions or, in certain cases, suspend voting rights indefinitely. You can read more about this on the NCSL website, at 808ne.ws/felvote.
Mahalo
At around 2:30 p.m. Feb. 26, my elderly mother and I were at the top-floor parking area of Ala Moana Center, near the elevators. As we crossed a lane, she tripped and fell. A young man rushed over and picked her up as a truck driver waited patiently for us to clear the lane. We are so grateful for the kindness of the young man, whose name I neglected to get in the haste to move out of the way. We sincerely thank you and the patient driver. May countless blessings be yours. — Sincerely, grateful seniors
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
