To the Editor:

Newtown is whiter than the census says.

The 2010 Census results stated that Newtown had 444 Black people and 1,033 Hispanics. But you never bumped into half of the Black people or 140 of the Latino men on a shopping trip to Big Y or Caraluzzi’s. They were incarcerated in Garner Correctional Facility on Nunnawauk Road. Seventy percent of the inmates at Garner are Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, or Asian. This is a result of the disproportionate incarceration of people of color in Connecticut. Black men are nearly ten times more likely to be imprisoned than white men in Connecticut, the 6th highest disparity in the nation. Latinos are four times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, the second highest disparity in the country.

The 2020 Census results will be released soon. They will be used in Connecticut to establish legislative districts across the state. There is a bill working its way through the General Assembly, SB 753, that instructs the committee overseeing the redistricting to count incarcerated people in their home communities, not in the town where they are imprisoned.

The bill is referred to as the End Prison Gerrymandering Act. This is because the current method of districting gives more political weight to white communities that house prisons and takes that political weight away from Black and Latino urban communities. For example, in some areas of New Haven, a resident’s vote counts for only 85% of a resident in Enfield or Somers, both towns with prisons. The needs and interests of men who are incarcerated at Garner and their families are underrepresented while the needs of the majority white population in Newtown are overrepresented.

The incarcerated population in the state is much lower in 2020 than it was in 2010, and on a practical level, not much will change in Newtown if SB 753 is passed. School funding and other financial matters use different numbers in their calculations. But counting incarcerated people in their home communities can end the unfair imbalance in political power between white and non-white towns. It’s a step towards racial equity in Connecticut.

Those of us working on the Why is Newtown So White? Project are eager to study the 2020 census data to see how the racial makeup of the town has changed. You can read more about what we are learning about the racial history of Newtown at www.whyisnewtownsowhite.info.

Sue Roman and Julia Hammond

7 Taunton Lake Road, Newtown