More than 1 in 5 U.S. residents protected from prison gerrymandering
Right now, 68,913,691 people live in a state, county or municipality that has formally rejected prison-based gerrymandering.
by Peter Wagner, May 16, 2013
Right now, 68,913,691 people live in a state, county or municipality that has formally rejected prison-based gerrymandering. When we first started working on prison-based gerrymandering, almost no one had heard of the problem. Today, more than one in five U.S. residents has been protected from it:
And yesterday the Illinois House passed HB 62 which would end prison gerrymandering in state legislative redistricting. Currently, 1.3 million people live in the 22 Illinois cities and counties reflected on our map that avoid prison gerrymandering in county or municipal redistricting. If HB 62 becomes law, we’ll update our map and be able to report that more than one in four people in the country — 26% — lives in a place that is protected from prison gerrymandering.
[…] prison gerrymandering’s impact is pervasive, and the overwhelming majority of the nation will benefit in at least one way when the practice comes to an end. As general messaging point, our movement […]
[…] More than 1 in 5 US residents protected from prison gerrymandering (Prisoners of the Census) […]