Utica NY paper calls on Sen Griffo & Assemblywoman Destito to oppose prison-based gerrymandering
by Peter Wagner, February 26, 2010 Link
The Utica New York Observer-Dispatch, is calling for their state senator and assemblywoman to support S6725/A9834 which would eliminate prison-based gerrymandering in state, county and municipal governments in the state. The paper calls prison-based gerrymandering “absurd” and “wrong”.
Read the editorial: Our view: Don’t count prisoners with voters. Redraw districts following 2010 Census to reflect true constituency published on Feb 26, 2010.
Or their previous coverage:
Minnesota Post on prison-based gerrymandering
by Peter Wagner, February 25, 2010 Link
Casey Selix writes about the importance of fixing the Census Bureau’s prison counts in Minnesota’s legislative districts in Census issue: when, where — and for what purpose — to count inmates
She quotes Prison Policy Initiative Legal Director Aleks Kajstura on why we are working in Minnesota on this issue with the Second Chance Coalition:
“We’re focusing on Minnesota for three reasons…. First, the Minnesota Constitution says that incarceration does not change a residence. Second, Minnesota has such a strong dedication to the principle of drawing equal districts, that only three other states have House districts that are more equal in population. Third, even though Minnesota has fewer people in prison than most states, there are still enough people being counted in the wrong place to violate the principles of democracy.”
Also quoted is Sarah Walker, a founder of the Second Chance Coalition, who explains why the Coalition is taking up the issue:
“There are so many people in prison today that it’s breaking our electoral system, punishing even people who have no involvement with the criminal justice system”
Keesha Gaskins, executive director of the League of Women Voters explains her rational as well:
“This is a democratic issue, with a small ‘d,’ ” she said. “This isn’t a huge partisan issue. It’s about what’s fair for citizens and what’s fair for prisoners.”
The article says that State Sen. Linda Higgins is working on a bill that would fix prison-based gerrymandering in the state.
Wagner testimony at Congressional field hearing on Census group quarters count
by Peter Wagner, February 25, 2010 Link
Testimony of Peter Wagner
Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative
Before the
Census, and National Archives Subcommittee of the
Oversight and Government Reform Committee
February 22, 2010
Thank you, Chairman Towns and Chairman Clay, for inviting me here today. I am Executive Director of the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization-based in Massachusetts. For the last decade, we have studied how the U.S. Census counts people in prison and worked to quantify the policy and legal implications flowing from those technical decisions.
Fairly and accurately counting the prison population matters. On Census day, there will be more than 2.3 million people behind bars in this country. That is a population larger than the 4th largest city in this county, larger than 15 individual states, and larger than the combined populations of our 3 smallest states. As this population disproportionately consists of African-American and Latino men, critical civil rights issues are at stake in a fair and accurate count of this population.
In this testimony I would like to explain some of the distortions in representation that result from the Census Bureau’s current practices regarding how incarcerated populations are counted, and the long-term changes that are needed to fully address the problem. At the same time, I would like to commend the Census Bureau for recently agreeing to an initial step that will provide more timely data to state and local governments that wish to make their own adjustments for a fairer and more accurate count.
Read more »
Syracuse Post-Standard endorses bill to end prison-based gerrymandering
by Peter Wagner, February 25, 2010 Link
The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, has endorsed ending prison-based gerrymandering in New York State with a strong editorial:
By The Post-Standard Editorial Board
February 24, 2010
Cayuga County is the temporary home of more than 2,500 people who don’t want to live there. They live inside the state prisons in Auburn and Moravia and, as such, have little or nothing to do with county life and use few if any county services. All but a relative handful of them — 24 as of Jan. 1 — lived outside the county before they were sent off to prison.
Yet for the purposes of the U.S. Census, those inmates are considered Cayuga County residents. The Census numbers beef up the government aid the county receives and add to the county’s political clout because they are used when legislative districts are redrawn.
Both of those practices are unfair. Most of the inmates in Upstate prisons come from poor, urban communities. They have families in those communities and will eventually return to them — and use county services. Onondaga County, for example, has no state prisons, but currently has about 1,900 people serving time in prisons in other counties. That’s 1,900 people who will not be counted as Onondaga County residents in the Census. Read more »
Who are the real victims of prison-based gerrymandering?
by Peter Wagner, February 24, 2010 Link
I find it disturbing to see prison-based gerrymandering portrayed as an urban vs rural issue. Why? Because the practice of padding some legislative districts with large prisons dilutes the votes of everyone who does not live next to a large prison. Rural and urban communities suffer about the same.
True, urban communities should have been credited with their true population, but the way the math works out, they suffer almost the exact same vote dilution as rural communities that do not contain prisons.
Democracy is not a zero sum game, and when the data that democracy depends on is flawed, even those who benefit in one way lose in another. The residents of some state senate districts, for example, get extra representation when their leaders claim incarcerated people as residents; but they often suffer in local government. For example, most of the residents of Rome New York have less access to city government than they should, because half of one city council district is incarcerated people who are not from Rome.
There are additional harms that I’m not going to address fully in this post. For example, padding a district with incarcerated people distorts the priorities of the “benefiting” district, dis-aligning the priorities of the district’s representatives and its actual residents. But like I said, prison-based gerrymandering is not an urban vs. rural issue.
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