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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, currently pending, and previously introduced legislation. See also our resolutions page for non-binding resolutions.
Model legislation
- Model state legislation with some guidance on how to customize for your state.
- Model county legislation for a county or municipality with a large prison that wishes to avoid prison-based gerrymandering.
- Sample city council resolution to request the necessary data and end prison-based gerrymandering within a city.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
Pending legislation
- 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.
- Rhode Island: H 7090 Residence of Those in Government Custody Act, introduced by Representatives Williams, Cimini, Handy, Slater, and McCauley, January 11, 2012.
- 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 in the House February 1, 2012. (For our analysis, see Virginia bill would help counties avoid prison-based gerrymandering.)
Efforts in previous legislative sessions:
- Arkansas: HB1996 To Clarify County Population for Apportionment Purposes; To Require the Department of Correction to Collect and Maintain Residential Address Information for Incarcerated Persons, introduced by Rep. Andrea Lea, March 4, 2011; HB2102 To Clarify County Population for Apportionment Purposes, to Require the Department of Corrections to Collect and Maintain Residential Address Information for Incarcerated Persons, to Clarify the Distribution of Funds to Counties, introduced by Rep. Andrea Lea, March 7, 2011; Resolution HR1024 To Urge the United States Census Bureau to Provide Redistricting Data that Counts Prisoners in a Manner Consistent with the Principles of "One Person, One Vote", introduced by Rep. Andrea Lea, March 7, 2011
- Connecticut: HB6606, An Act Concerning the Determination of the Residence of Incarcerated Persons for Purposes of Legislative Redistricting, introduced March 16, 2011
- Georgia: HB 163 To provide for the inclusion and exclusion of certain prisoners in population counts when redistricting plans are created, sponsored by Representatives Dawkins-Haigler, Mayo, Beasley-Teague, Stephenson, Heard and Stephens, February 2, 2011
- Indiana: House Bill 1459 Residence of incarcerated persons, introduced by Rep. C. Brown, January 20, 2011
- Illinois: HB94 Prisoner Census Addresses, introduced by Rep. LaShawn K. Ford, January 12, 2011
- Oregon: Senate Bill 720, Relating to redistricting, February 15, 2011
- Rhode Island: Senate Bill 0340, Senators Metts, Pichardo, Jabour, Goodwin, and Perry, February 16, 2011
- Texas: HB 1227, Relating to the inclusion of an incarcerated person in the population data used for redistricting according to the person's last residence before incarceration, introduced by Representative Dutton, February 9, 2011.
- Virginia: HB 2073 Redistricting local districts; local government may exclude from its calculations, introduced by Delegate Riley E. Ingram, January 12, 2011. it passed the House, 99-0 on February 8, 2011, but was passed over in the Senate.
- Kentucky: HB 484, AN ACT relating to information used in redistricting, introduced by Representative D. Owens, February 14, 2011
- New York: S6725A, AN ACT to amend the correction law, the legislative law, and the municipal home rule law, in relation to the collection of census data, with Sponsor's Memo, introduced by New York State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, February 1, 2010 and A9834A introduced by New York State Assemblymember Jeffries, and co-sponsored by Assemblymembers Espaillat, Dinowitz, Arroyo, Rivera P, Heastie, Lavine, Benjamin, Kavanagh, Kellner, Boyland, Clark, Crespo, Glick, Hooper, Latimer, Peoples-Stokes, Perry, Rosenthal, Stirpe, and Towns.
- Federal: Rep Gene Green (D, TX) has introduced a bill that would require the U.S. Census, starting with the 2020 Census, to count incarcerated people as residents of their pre-incarceration addresses: H.R. 2075, April 23, 2009
- Rhode Island: Residence of Those in Government Custody Act [PDF] (H7833), introduced by Representative Joseph S. Almeida, February 25, 2010 and S2452 [PDF] introduced by Senators Metts, Jabour, Pichardo, Goodwin, and Perry, February 11, 2010
- Connecticut: General Assembly Bill No. 5523
- Florida: Senate 1386 introduced by Senator Bullard on January 26, 2010
- Illinois: Prisoner Census Adjustment Act introduced by Rep. LaShawn K. Ford, October 14, 2009
- Minnesota: An act relating to redistricting; requiring the exclusion of persons incarcerated in state or federal correctional facilities from population counts used for state and local redistricting, introduced by Senator Higgins, March 2010: S.F. No. 3097 and H.F. 3536 introduced by Rep. Champion
- Pennsylvania: A Resolution urging the United States Census Bureau to change its policy of recording the residence of incarcerated persons from the location of the correctional facilities to the last known home address of such persons, introduced by Representatives Cruz, Youngblood, Parker and Siptroth, January 20, 2010
- Wisconsin: Census Correction Amendment [PDF] to require that incarcerated people be excluded from the population base used for redistricting legislative, county, and other districts. Introduced by Senator Taylor, cosponsored by Representatives Kessler, Black, Grigsby, Turner and A. Williams, June 22, 2009.
- Oregon: Senate Bill 1028, sponsored by Senator Shields; Senator Rosenbaum, Representatives Holvey, Kahl, Kotek, February 1, 2010
- New York: S1633 introduced by New York State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman and Senators Breslin, Diaz, Dilan, Duane, Hassell-Thompson, Krueger, Montgomery, Onorato, Oppenheimer, Parker, Sampson, Savino, Serrano, Stavisky and Thompson An Act to amend the election law, in relation to the residential classification of certain incarcerated persons February 3, 2009, and A9380 introduced by Assemblymember Jeffries, and co-sponsored by Assemblymembers Espaillat, Dinowitz, Arroyo, Rivera P, Heastie, Lavine, Benjamin, Kavanagh, Kellner, Boyland, Clark, Crespo, Glick, Hooper, Latimer, Peoples-Stokes, Perry, Rosenthal, Stirpe, and Towns.
- Oregon: H2930, introduced by Representative Shields (D, Oregon); Representatives Bruun, Freeman, Greenlick, Kahl, J Smith, directing the Department of Corrections to collect home address information so the legislature can draw districts with inmates counted at their home addresses [PDF], audio from hearing, (.ram file, start at minute 28) March 2009
- Texas: Acts relating to the inclusion of an incarcerated person in the population data used for redistricting according to the person's last residence before incarceration. HB 672 introduced by Rep. Hodge in January 2009, and HB2855 introduced by Rep. Dutton, March 2009.
- Pennsylvania: H525 introduced by Pennsylvania Reps. Cruz, Youngblood, Myers, Wheatley, Caltagirone, Parker, Josephs, Swanger and James, Urging the United States Census Bureau to change its policy of recording the residence of incarcerated persons from the location of the correctional facilities to the last known home address of such persons , December 6, 2007 [PDF].
- Michigan: HB No 4935 introduced by Michigan Reps. Lemmons, Young and Gonzales A bill to require state and local governmental bodies to use census figures adjusted to reflect preincarceration addresses of persons imprisoned in this state June 19, 2007
- New York: S1934 introduced by New York State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, An Act to amend the election law, in relation to the residential classification of certain incarcerated persons January 29, 2007
- New York: S2754 introduced by New York State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman An Act to amend the election law, in relation to the residential classification of certain incarcerated persons February 25, 2005
- Illinois: HB 906 introduced by Illinois Representative Arthur Turner Prisoner Census Adjustment Act February 2, 2005
- Illinois: HB 7338 introduced by Illinois Representative Arthur Turner Prisoner Census Adjustment Act October 22, 2004. Bill text
- New York: Peter Wagner's testimony before the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment, March 14, 2002. Prepared testimony: in HTML or PDF format. Or read the Transcript
- Texas: H.B. No. 2639 drafted by Texas Representative Dutton 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. (2001)
- Federal: Hrg. No. 106-39 -- Oversight of the 2000 Census- Examining the Bureau's Policy to Count Prisoners, Military Personnel, and Americans Residing Overseas. House Committee on Government Reform Committee Hearings, 106th Congress. PDF version with prepared testimony included. (1999)
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Meet us
- Feb 18, 2012: Peter Wagner will discuss prison-based gerrymandering on a Race & Voting panel at the RebLaw Conference at 11am at Yale Law School in New Haven CT.
- April 26-28, 2012: Peter Wagner will be speaking about prison-based gerrymandering at the A New Vision of Black Freedom: The Manning Marable Memorial Conference at Columbia Univ. in New York City. Exact day/time TBA.
Not near you? Invite Peter to your town.
