Redlining and Incarceration: The Long Shadow of Housing Discrimination in Broome County

Author: Sophia Gately

Field of Study: Arts and Humanities

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Will Glovinsky

Easel: 35

Timeslot: Afternoon

Abstract: The incarceration rate in Broome County has surged by 680% since 1980. In the Binghamton area, low-income neighborhoods often have a higher, stricter police presence and less government support and development––a legacy of government redlining that has lingered even after the passage of the Fair Housing Act. This project helps connect the era of redlining with mass incarceration by first correlating Broome County incarceration rates with historically redlined zones. Then, using government census data, firsthand interviews with people incarcerated in the Broome County jail, local news archives, and a review of housing policies, it examines the rising issue of incarceration and links it to injustices from past decades in Broome County. These sources suggest how housing insecurity, financial disinvestment, and community neglect have contributed to mass incarceration and heavy policing in the county’s segregated, low-income, and Black neighborhoods.