- Sections
- Introduction
- Section 1: Getting started
- Section 2: Accessing Census data
- Section 3: Calculating the impact on districts
- Section 4: Repairing your democracy, now and in the future
- Tools
- Correctional Facility Locator (2020)
- Correctional Facility Locator (2010)
- Correctional Facility Locator (2000)
- Vote dilution calculator
- 2020 Worksheet [DOC] a single worksheet updated for use after the 2020 Census to determine if a county included or excluded the incarcerated population.
- Worksheets [DOC] with all of the tables used in this toolkit
- Appendices
- Handling lettered blocks
- Determining whether prisoners were included or excluded from districts with known populations.
- District population deviations & split prisons
- Weighted Voting
Democracy Toolkit:
Vote Dilution Calculator
We have found that the most effective way to explain vote dilution is to show it in terms of groups of people being valued differently. This tool will help you translate percentages into examples.
Fill out the fields below for the district with the largest prison population and we'll suggest a simple way to explain the impact:
Recommended Reading:
About the Prison Policy Initiative
Learn more about the organization behind the Prison Gerrymandering Project.
The Racial Geography of Mass Incarceration
The transfer of Black and Latino incarcerated people to communities very different than their own is a nationwide problem.
Do prisons draw in Census money for their host communities? No.
We explain that prison gerrymandering is bad for democracy but federal & state aid are not impacted.
Prison-based Gerrymandering in Anamosa, Iowa
How a prison helped one man get elected with just two votes.