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Rhode Island
The U.S. Census Bureau counts incarcerated people where they are confined not where they are from. Using these counts to draw state and county legislative districts enhances the weight of a vote cast by people who live near prisons at the expense of everyone else in the state or county.
Legislation
- H 7090 Residence of Those in Government Custody Act, was introduced by Representatives Williams, Cimini, Handy, Slater, and McCauley, January 11, 2012
Testimony
- Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy initiative, before the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee, January 26, 2012
- Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy initiative, before the Rhode Island Reapportionment Commission, December 22, 2011 (a shorter version of the testimony before the Judiciarry Committee, above)
- Rhode Island Affiliate, American Civil Liberties Union, before the Rhode Island Reapportionment Commission, October 17, 2011
Rhode Island leaders
It’s impossible to include everyone who is working toward fair districting in Rhode Island, but if you are looking to get involved, these are some of the people and organizations you might want to contact:
- ACLU of Rhode Island: and
- Common Cause Rhode Island: John Marion
Endorsers
Fact sheets
- Prison-based gerrymandering in Rhode Island: The problem, the law, the solution
- Rhode Island's Census Adjustment Act How the bills work and who benefits
- States are authorized to adjust census data to end prison-based gerrymandering, and many already do [PDF] by Prison Policy Initiative and Demos
- Prison-Based Gerrymandering in City of Cranston, RI
More information
- Unlocking the Census: Nearly 5000 “Guests” should not prop up Cranston districts, by Bruce Reilly, RIFuture.org, January 13, 2010. Bruce Reilly looks at the impact of prison-based gerrymandering on individual districts — and democracy as a whole — in Rhode Island.
- Claiming prisoners as Cranston constituents has a downside for Rhode Island city's voting rights press release, April 13, 2010
- Fixing prison-based gerrymandering after the 2010 Census: Rhode Island
Press coverage
Organizing to end prison-based gerrymandering in Rhode Island, podcast interview by Peter Wagner with Bruce Riley, organizer at Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Prisoners of the Census Blog, August 26, 2010 
N.Y. prisoners switch districts; will R.I. follow?, by Ed Fitzpatrick (column), Providence Journal, August 17, 2010- 10 More Years of Power? Still time to pass the Residence of Those in Government Custody Act, by Bruce Reilly, RIfuture.org, June 6, 2010
- City softens stance on prison census, by John Hill, Providence Journal [Rhode Island], May 6, 2010
- The Case of Cranston's Phantom Prison Constituents, by Te-Ping Chen, Change.org, April 14, 2010
- Rhode Island mayor: Prisoners count as residents when it helps me, not when it helps them, by Sara Mayeux, Prisoners of the Census Blog, March 31, 2010
- Second Grader Tests Limits of Rhode Island Prison-based Gerrymandering Policy, Prison Law Blog, March 30, 2010
Follow us
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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.
