Plus: Connecticut clears important hurdle to end prison gerrymandering

Prison Gerrymandering Project for April 16, 2021 The 2010 Census counted more than 2 million people in the wrong place. How does your vote suffer as a result?

State legislatures, members of Congress, and national newspapers push for an end to prison gerrymandering in 2021 [[link removed]] A New York Times editorial, a federal bill, and other encouraging updates from our fight to make sure incarcerated people are counted in the right place. [[link removed]]

by Wanda Bertram

This week, the Editorial Board of The New York Times [[link removed]] called on states and the federal government to end prison gerrymandering, the practice of drawing legislative districts around large prisons and counting the people inside as legitimate constituents. As the Editorial Board remarked, this practice

"makes no sense, because virtually everyone who goes to prison comes from somewhere else, and almost all will return there after being released. While they are behind bars, they can't vote, nor do they have any attachment to the local community or its elected officials...The result is one of the more persistent and pernicious distortions in the redistricting process."

The bad news is that with redistricting just around the corner, policymakers are running out of time to prevent another 10 years of prison-driven election distortion. The good news is that momentum is rapidly building to fix the problem in several local, state, and federal lawmaking bodies, as well as in the national media:

Connecticut, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Missouri are all considering bills [[link removed]] that would require state and local redistricting officials to count incarcerated people as residents of their home addresses. Federal bill H.R. 1, the "For the People Act," contains clauses that would end prison gerrymandering nationally -- forever -- by requiring the Census Bureau to change how it counts incarcerated people. As the NYT editorial correctly notes, this is by far the most efficient solution to prison gerrymandering. However, even if H.R. 1 passes this year, it won't fix the problem until the 2030 Census. A small storm of recent press coverage is bringing public attention to prison gerrymandering, including a powerful oped in The Boston Globe [[link removed]], a deep dive published in The New Republic [[link removed]], and a flurry [[link removed]] of [[link removed]] articles [[link removed]] from Connecticut about its new bill. State and local governments are also considering solutions that don't require legislation. Cities and counties can simply choose to exclude prison populations [[link removed]] when they draw new legislative districts this year, a solution that hundreds of local governments have already chosen. [[link removed]] Meanwhile, state redistricting officials can divide up their prison populations among multiple districts to ensure that no one district claims a disproportionate number of incarcerated people.

If you live in a state that still hasn't taken action, you may wonder what the options are for ending prison gerrymandering where you live this year. Again, there is good news and bad news. Most states have run out of time to introduce new bills this year that would take effect before the 2021 redistricting process begins.

But all states still have time to limit prison gerrymandering this year through non-legislative means (the solution described in the fourth bullet above). And the stakes have never been higher. In the words of the Times Editorial Board: "A healthy representative democracy needs an accurate picture of who lives where in order to allocate the proper number of lawmakers to represent their interests."

Learn more about what your state is doing to end prison gerrymandering at [[link removed]]

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Our work is made possible by private donations. Can you help us keep going? We can accept tax-deductible gifts online [[link removed]] or via paper checks sent to PO Box 127 Northampton MA 01061. Thank you!

Other news: Connecticut clears an important hurdle to ending prison gerrymandering [[link removed]]

Connecticut's bill to end prison gerrymandering has passed out of committee — a landmark moment for the movement to get incarcerated people in Connecticut counted in the right place. The bill will now be able to go to a vote before the General Assembly. Read more:

WSHU's coverage of the bill. [[link removed]] Powerful oped in The Connecticut Post in support of the bill. [[link removed]] More support from the press: A new oped in The Boston Globe [[link removed]]

Advocates will find Abdallah Fayyad's new Boston Globe column a useful article to distribute to policymakers, as a concise explainer about why ending prison gerrymandering is important this year.

Read the oped. [[link removed]]

Our other newsletters General Prison Policy Initiative newsletter ( archives [[link removed]]) Criminal justice research library ( archives [[link removed]])

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Northampton, Mass. 01061

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Prison Policy Initiative

PO Box 127 Northampton, Mass. 01061

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