WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A coalition of African-American leaders wants a switch in the way the census is counted to avoid shortchanging minorities in prison, observers say.
The suggestion for the 2010 census is for inmates in federal prisons to be counted in their home communities instead of the towns where they are incarcerated.
Marc H. Morial, president of the National Urban League and chairman of a census advisory committee, said the practice now denies communities money and democratic representation in under-reporting the true population figure, The Washington Post reported.
Morial says that about 1.2 million of the nation's 40 million African-Americans are in prison and census data misrepresenting their home is "a built-in undercount."
Census statistics are used to calculate the allocation of more than $478 billion in federal funds and to draw political district boundaries.
