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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.
Pending legislation
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:
- Bruce Reilly, Direct Action for Rights and Equality
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-basd 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
Press coverage
-
N.Y. prisoners switch districts; will R.I. follow?, by Ed Fitzpatrick (column), Providence Journal, August 17, 2010 - City softens stance on prison census, by John Hill, Providence Journal [Rhode Island], May 6, 2010
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Meet us
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