Legislation

State and local governments need not wait for the Census Bureau to change where incarcerated people are counted to end prison-based gerrymandering. They can take action on their own. On this page, we provide some model legislation, and links to enacted legislation, current bills, and previously introduced legislation. See also our resolutions page for non-binding resolutions.

Model legislation

Enacted legislation

  • Delaware: House Bill # 384, An Act To Amend Title 29 of the Delaware Code Relating to State Government, passed unanimously by the Delaware House, June 1, 2010, and 17-3 in the Delaware Senate, June 30, 2010. Signed by the Governor August 31, 2010, Primary sponsor: Representative Keeley. Additional sponsors: Rep. J. Johnson & Rep. D.P. Williams & Sen. Henry. Cosponsors: Reps. Barbieri, Brady, Hudson, Mitchell; Sens. Marshall, McDowell. Amended May 13, 2011.
  • Maryland: No Representation Without Population Act, introduced in the House of Delegates by Delegate Pena-Melnyk as HB496 and in the Senate by Senator Pugh as SB400, January 29, 2010. Signed by the governor, April 13, 2010. Regulations were adopted, effective February 25, 2011.
  • New York's bill to end prison-based gerrymandering was attached as part XX of the revenue budget (A9710D/S6610C) and had a technical amendment, A11597/S8415. The Bill and the amendment passed the Assembly on July 1, and the Senate on August 3, 2010. Both were signed by the governor on August 11, 2010.
  • California: AB 420, An act to add Section 21003 to the Elections Code, relating to redistricting, introduced by Assembly Member Davis, February 14, 2011. The bill passed the Assembly on June 1 and the Senate on August 30, and was signed by the governor on October 7, 2011. And AB 1986, An act to amend Section 21003 of the Elections Code, relating to redistricting, introduced by Assembly Member Davis, amended March 29, 2012, was signed by the governor on September 14, 2012. (The bill amends AB 420, adding privacy protections and covering people incarcerated in federal facilities, a full bill analysis is available from the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting.)
  • Essex County, New York: More than a hundred rural counties and municipalities around the country refuse to engage in prison-based gerrymandering when drawing their local district lines, but to our knowledge Essex County Local Law No 1 of 2003 is the only one to put their rationale directly the law's text.
  • Colorado: Senate Bill 02-007 Concerning County Commissioner Redistricting, sponsored by Senator Hillman, and Representatives Kester, Garcia, and Hoppe, and approved by the Governor on March 27, 2002, prohibits counties from using prison populations when drawing county commissioner districts.
  • Michigan: Statutory requirements for redistricting prevent state prison populations from skewing either county (Mich. Comp. Laws § 46.404(g)) or municipal (Mich. Comp. Laws § 117.27a (5)) democracy. The statutes provide that the district population cannot include anyone in a state institution who is not a resident of the city or county for election purposes.
  • Virginia: HB 13, "Redistricting local districts; local government may exclude prison populations from its calculation," prefiled by Delegate Riley E. Ingram, December 2, 2011, passed unanimously by both the House and Senate in February 2012, and signed into law by the Governor on March 23, 2012. (For our analysis of the bill, see Virginia bill would help counties avoid prison-based gerrymandering.) HB 1339, "Election districts & redistricting; locality permitted to exclude from census correctional facility," prefiled by Delegate R. Lee Ware, Jr., November 20, 2012, passed the House unanimously on January 23, and with bipartisan support in the Senate on February 15, and was signed into law by the Governor on March 18, 2013. (For our analysis of the bill, see Virginia ends mandatory prison gerrymandering.)The bills apply only to county, city or municipal redistricting, and do not apply to funding or other uses of Census data, including state redistricting.

Current bills

  • Federal: HR 1537, "To amend title 13, United States Code, to provide that individuals in prison shall, for the purposes of a decennial census, be attributed to the last place of residence before incarceration," introduced by Representatives Jeffries (NY), Richmond (LA), Rangel (NY), Johnson (GA), Clarke (NY), Scott (VA) on April 12, 2013.
  • Connecticut: HB 5518, "An Act Concerning the Determination of Residence for Incarcerated Persons," introduced by Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield, January 22, 2013; HB 6679, "An Act Concerning the Counting of Incarcerated Persons for Purposes of Determining Legislative Districts and Distributing State and Federal Funds," introduced by the Judiciary Committee, March 25, 2013.
  • Illinois: HB 62, "No Representation Without Population Act," prefiled by Rep. LaShawn K. Ford, January 3, 2013.
  • Kentucky: BR 219, "An act relating to information used in redistricting", pre-filed by Representative Darryl T. Owens, October 25, 2012.
  • Massachusetts:S 309 and H 3185 "Resolutions Urging the Census Bureau to Provide Redistricting Data that Counts Prisoners in a Manner Consistent with the Principles of 'One Person, One Vote,'" sponsored by Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz and Representative Linda Dorcena Forry, respectively, introduced on January 22, 2013.
  • New Jersey: S1055, "requir[ing] incarcerated individual from State to be counted at residential address for legislative redistricting purposes", introduced by Senator Sandra Cunningham, January, 2012; and A1437, introduced by Assemblymembers Watson Coleman and Coutinho.
  • Oregon: SB 516, sponsored by the committee on General Government, Consumer And Small Business Protection, and HB 2686, sponsored by Representatives Berger and Bailey, both intorduced in the 2013 Regular Session.
  • Rhode Island: "The Residence of Those in Government Custody Act," introduced as S 0147 by Senators Metts, Crowley, Pichardo, and Jabour on January 24, 2013, and as H 5283 by Representatives Williams, Lally, Guthrie, Hull, and Ajello, on February 6, 2013.
  • Texas: "An Act Relating to the inclusion of an incarcerated person in the population data used for redistricting according to the person's last residence before incarceration" was filed by Representative Dutton as HB 329 on December 21, 2012, and Representative Johnson as HB 684 on January 24, 2013.

Efforts in previous legislative sessions: