Today, April 1st, 2020, is Census Day. Every ten years, everyone in the United States has the opportunity to be counted through the U.S. census. The demographic information gathered through the census process has a direct impact on funding for programs like special education, health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, and even the national school lunch program. Additionally, the government uses census data to fairly and equitably apportion the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the states.
Even in the best of situations, individuals with disabilities are considered hard to count. Group facilities count people in residence in their facilities on Census Day. For our incarcerated loved ones, this means the administrators of their prison institutions are responsible for counting them. Because we know that there are flaws in how prison institutions identify and count individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD), we know that this population is at a disadvantage. We know from the beginning that they will be underrepresented and programs that benefit them will be underfunded.
The inability of prisons to accurately identify, track, and trend the segment of their population who have I/DDs is an excellent justification to contact prison officials, state legislators, and our senators. Let them know that until they find a way to honestly represent our incarcerated loved ones who have an I/DD, that programming in our state will be under-supported. Think about it this way. If the count of incarcerated individuals who have an I/DD reflects that 6-10% of the prison population have I/DDs, rather than the estimated 2-3%, perhaps more funding will go to programs that educate those individuals and keep them out of the criminal justice system in the first place. Some situations lead individuals with an I/DD to become involved in the criminal justice system. Perhaps these situations could be addressed with educational programming. But, funding is not likely to be allocated unless the criminal justice system finds a better way of identifying, tracking, and trending this population.
EVERYBODY, please complete the 2020 Census. It’s easier than ever, and you can complete it online.
But while you’re at it, don't forget to contact your state and federal representatives. We need programs to reduce the number of individuals with an I/DD entering prison. We need to develop community-based programs and provide alternatives to incarceration for this vulnerable population. Programming will not happen until we implement a system to identify all individuals within the prison population who have I/DDs.