Md. Finishes Prison Count For Census

State legislative districts in Baltimore gained the most. Still, state officials said the increases were modest compared to the overall population of the five districts. The districts are still well below the ideal district size of 122,813, according to the department of planning.

Maryland became the first state in the nation last year to decide to count inmates as residents of where they last lived, instead of the areas where they are imprisoned.

Legislative District 37 on the Eastern Shore had a gain of 655 people, or .5 percent. Two Baltimore County legislative districts also saw very slight increases.

Parts of Maryland with large state correctional institutions experienced the biggest population losses in the adjustment.

Legislative District 2B in Washington County lost 5,304 residents, or about 12 percent. The change leaves the total adjusted population for the district below the single-member ideal district size of 40,938.

District 1B in Allegany County had a 6.5 percent drop in residents from the adjustments. That means the district is nearly 3,200 people below the ideal population size.

District 38A in Somerset County on the Eastern Shore lost about 5.8 percent of its residents under the adjustment, but it remains nearly 2,200 above the ideal population size for a legislative district.

The ideal state legislative district population prior to the adjustment was 122,842, compared with 122,813 after being adjusted for the law.

The results were certified by the Maryland Department of Planning, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and the executive director of the Department of Legislative Services. The departments reviewed information on about 22,000 prisoners.

Prisoners who were homeless or whose prior addresses could not be located were counted at the prison for redistricting purposes. Prisoners who were not state residents prior to their incarceration were excluded.

To make the adjustments, the state requested last known addresses of the prisoners in Maryland's only federal facility in Cumberland, but the Federal Bureau of Prisons denied the request. The state has appealed the decision to the Justice Department, and the appeal is pending. There are about 1,500 inmates at the federal prison in Cumberland, and they are not expected to significantly alter redistricting plans for Baltimore.

The state's redistricting process will continue this summer with public hearings, review and analysis of proposed plans.