Oregon House Committee on Rules held public hearing on redistricting bills, City Club of Portland supports bills to end prison gerrymandering .
by Aleks Kajstura,
March 7, 2013
Prison gerrymandering was addressed at an Oregon House Committee on Rules public hearing [audio .ram file] on Monday. The hearing covered two bills and a constitutional amendment that together would establish a redistricting commission. One of the bills, HB 2686, would also end prison gerrymandering in the state. HB2868 was introduced with bi-partisan sponsorship by Representatives Berger and Bailey.
The City Club of Portland testified in support of the bill. The legislation follows the recommendations of the Club’s report analyzing Oregon’s redistricting process [PDF], as well as Common Cause Oregon’s report, both released last year. The reports critique the way prison populations were handled in redistricting, and the City Club’s report specifically called for that session’s legislation to end prison gerrymandering (SB 720) to be considered again this session. SB 720 is back for consideration this year as SB 516, sponsored by the committee on General Government, Consumer And Small Business Protection.
Vigo County Indiana faces drawing a district where 13% of the population is actually people incarcerated at the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex.
by Aleks Kajstura,
March 6, 2013
A Vigo County resident, with the help of the ACLU of Indiana, recently filed a lawsuit to force the county to reapportion their voting districts. Population shifts in the two decades since the county last redistricted result in significant population differences between the districts. One of the population changes in Vigo County is the expansion of the federal prison complex, but regardless the districts need to be redrawn. I’m following the suit because if the prison population is included in the new districts one district could be 13% incarcerated, giving this district extra influence while diluting the vote of anyone living in any other district.
When Vigo County takes up redistricting to fulfill the constitutional mandate of “one person, one vote” the county should ensure that the federal prison population doesn’t undermine their efforts. Currently 3,251 of the people in District 4 are actually people incarcerated at the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Complex. The people reported by the census at the correctional complex cannot vote and are not legal residents of the prison (and likely not even residents of Indiana) so by including them in redistricting data the county would effectively maintain malapportioned districts.
When looking for a solution to the prison-count problem, Vigo county could follow the example of its county seat, Terre Haute. When Terre Haute redistricted last year, it avoided prison gerrymandering by excluding the very same incarcerated population reported at the Federal Correctional Complex.
What will Vigo County do? Stay tuned.
Rhode Island Senate Committee on Judiciary heard testimony from the Rhode Island ACLU on S 147, a bill to end prison gerrymandering in the state.
by Aleks Kajstura,
March 5, 2013
The Rhode Island Senate Committee on Judiciary considered the state Senate’s latest bill to end prison gerrymandering (S147) at a hearing on Tuesday.
Steve Brown of the Rhode Island ACLU testified and answered questions from the Senators. Brown explained why prison gerrymandering is especially dramatic in Rhode Island, testifying:
The need for remedying this problem in Rhode Island is heightened by our state’s special status. We believe we may be the only state with just one prison complex. This fact combines negatively with the fact that Rhode Island legislative districts are smaller by population than in most states.”
Nick Horton of Open Doors also testified in support of the legislation. And Peter Wager, our executive director, submitted testimony based on PPI’s research.
The House is also considering ending prison gerrymandering, with H5283 in the Judiciary Committee. More information about the bills and prison gerrymandering in Rhode Island is available through our Rhode Island campaign page.
[Update: House hearing on H5283 bill will be held next Tuesday evening, March 12, 2013.]
A new resolution introduced in the House and Senate call on the Census Bureau to tabulate incarcerated people at their home addresses beginning in 2020.
by Leah Sakala,
March 1, 2013
The Massachusetts Legislature has a new opportunity to take a stand against prison gerrymandering. Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz and Representative Linda Dorcena Forry have introduced a resolution in the Senate and House calling on the Census Bureau to end prison gerrymandering across the nation by tabulating incarcerated people at their home addresses beginning in 2020.
A change at the Census Bureau would be especially helpful for Massachusetts, which faces unique constitutional requirements that would need to be revised before the state could implement a legislative solution as New York or Maryland have done. As the resolution observes,
…the simplest solution to the conflict between federal constitutional requirements of “one person, one vote” and Massachusetts constitutional requirements of using the federal census is for the Census Bureau to publish redistricting data based on the location of an incarcerated person’s residence, not prison location…
Massachusetts legislators know from experience how the Census Bureau’s method of tabulating prison populations distorts democracy. The Co-Chairs of the Massachusetts Special Joint Committee on Redistricting noted in their wrap-up redistricting report last December that prison gerrymandering was a significant problem they faced when they drew new electoral district lines after the 2010 Census:
The tabulation of prisoners should be at the forefront of Bureau priorities in evaluating and adjusting how the 2020 U.S. Census will be conducted.
We agree that the way prisoners are currently counted does a disservice to the state and should be changed.
By passing this resolution, the Massachusetts Legislature can send a strong message that it’s time for the Census Bureau to respond to changing data needs by providing state and local governments with redistricting data that accurately portrays American communities. Stay tuned!
Midwest Democracy Network meeting included presentation on prison gerrymandering, with new state-specific fact sheets for the region.
by Peter Wagner,
February 15, 2013
On February 1, I presented about prison gerrymandering at the Midwest Democracy Network meeting. I gave an overview of the problem and the solutions, talked about the historic New York and Maryland legislation (see our new fact sheet Maryland and New York Have Taken the Lead), and distributed fact sheets about prison gerrymandering in each state:
After my talk, Josina Morita of United Congress, Laura Fredrick Wang of the League of Women Voters of Minnesota, and Sarah Walker of Minnesota Second Chance Coalition spoke about their experiences organizing to end prison gerrymandering in their states. Prison gerrymandering then played a big part in the state-specific discussions at the end of the meeting, so stay tuned for more on ending prison gerrymandering in the Midwest!
210 civil rights, voting rights and criminal justice organizations sent a letter calling on the U.S. Census Bureau to seize a timely opportunity to research alternative ways to count incarcerated people in the decennial Census.
February 14, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FEBRUARY 14, 2013
Contact:
Leah Sakala, Prison Policy Initiative, (413) 527-0845
Lauren Strayer, Dēmos, Lauren Strayer, (212) 389-1413
Easthampton, MA – Today, more than 200 civil rights, voting rights and criminal justice organizations sent a letter calling on the U.S. Census Bureau to seize a timely opportunity to research alternative ways to count incarcerated people in the decennial Census.
The letter expresses a national concern that the Bureau’s method of counting incarcerated people at prison locations, rather than in their home communities, leads to an unequal distribution of political power in state and local governments known as “prison gerrymandering.” The letter explains that incarcerated people are not considered residents of prisons for other purposes, but the Census Bureau’s method “concentrates a population that is disproportionately male, urban, and African-American or Latino in approximately 1,500 federal and state prisons that are far from their home communities.” The 210 organizations wrote, “We are concerned that the Census Bureau’s tabulation procedures distort the redistricting process, giving extra political influence to people who live near prisons while diluting the votes of residents in every other legislative district.”
Although the 2020 Census is seven years away, the Census Bureau is already deep in the planning process. The letter calls on the Bureau to pave the way for a national end to prison gerrymandering in 2020 by prioritizing research on how to count incarcerated people at home in the next census. “In order to develop the best possible methodology for fixing prison gerrymandering, the Census Bureau needs to address this research question now,” said Brenda Wright, Vice President of Legal Strategies at Dēmos.
The letter charges that “…Failing to count incarcerated people at home for redistricting purposes undermines the constitutional guarantee of ‘one person, one vote’, with critical implications for the health of our democracy.” For that reason, the organizations note, four states and more than 200 counties and municipalities have made their own adjustments to Census Bureau data in order to avoid prison gerrymandering. But while state and local governments are increasingly devising their own solutions, many face unique constraints and only the Census Bureau can implement a comprehensive and standardized national solution.
The letter credits the Census Bureau with recognizing that prison gerrymandering causes significant problems for state and local redistricting. Specifically, the Bureau began to address the problem by releasing 2010 Census data on prison populations ahead of schedule in order to allow state and local governments to adjust their redistricting data to avoid prison gerrymandering. “The Bureau has made great progress towards enabling state and local governments to find creative solutions to prison gerrymandering,” said Peter Wagner, Executive Director of the Prison Policy Initiative, “and now the Bureau must use the current planning period to ensure that the 2010 Census is the last one to tabulate two million incarcerated people outside their home communities.“
The full text of the letter, including a list of signers, is available at http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/letters/feb2013.html.
New Virginia bill (HB 1339) to end state's requirement that some counties engage in prison gerrymandering passed House, is making its way through Senate.
by Aleks Kajstura,
January 30, 2013
The census’s practice of counting incarcerated people at the location of the facility where they are incarcerated, rather than at their home addresses, continues to test Virginia’s redistricting laws, but the state keeps making progress towards a solution. A new bill to end the state’s requirement that some counties and cities engage in prison gerrymandering, HB 1339, just passed the House and is making its way through the Senate.
Historically, Virginia law required counties and cities to base their legislative districts on unadjusted federal census data, denying local governments in Virginia the flexibility exercised by governments in other states to choose the population base used for redistricting. This caused some counties’ districts to be distorted by the way prison populations are counted in the census, resulting in prison gerrymandering. Over 200 counties and municipalities across the nation avoid prison gerrymandering by adjusting census data to account for the prison populations.
In 2001, Virginia took its first step in amending the law to give counties where incarcerated people make up more than 12% of the census population the option to avoid padding Board of Supervisors districts with prison populations.
Unfortunately, the 2001 law’s escape valve did not apply to enough local governments. For example, Southampton County’s prison population was too small to benefit from the 2001 law, because the county was forced to draw a district that was more than half incarcerated. This gave the residents of the district with the prison more than twice the political influence of the residents of all other districts in the county.
Last year the law was amended yet again to allow more counties and cities to avoid prison gerrymandering. The law now allows any county, city, or town where a single district would be more than 12% incarcerated to exclude prison populations from its redistricting data.
HB 1339, now in the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections, proposes to allow any county, city, or town, regardless of size, to exclude populations of correctional facilities for redistricting purposes. Virginia’s long struggle with the Census Bureau’s prisoner miscount underscores the importance of a comprehensive national solution at the Census Bureau by 2020.
The Valley Advocate and WHMP cover the Massachusetts Legislature's upcoming resolution against prison gerrymandering.
by Leah Sakala,
January 9, 2013
Yesterday the Valley Advocate ran a great overview of the Massachusetts Special Joint Committee on Redistricting’s wrap-up report on the process of redrawing the Massachusetts district lines. As the article points out, the Committee found that prison gerrymandering presented a significant problem in the past redistricting cycle:
PPI has led the campaign to fix the problem, producing numerous reports showing the resulting political disparities in districts across the country. PPI also brought the matter to the attention of Massachusetts’ redistricting committee, whose report referred to the “tremendous amount of testimony and advice” it received on the issue. “We agree that the way prisoners are currently counted does a disservice to the state and should be changed,” the authors wrote.
The best solution, the report concludes, is for the Census Bureau to solve the problem nationwide by 2020:
The “most expedient and streamlined” fix […] would be for Congress to call on the Census Bureau to change its policy on counting prisoners. “The tabulation of prisoners should be at the forefront of Bureau priorities in evaluating and adjusting how the 2020 U.S. Census will be conducted,” said the report, which also recommended that the Legislature pass a resolution expressing its support of such a change—and take more dramatic action if necessary. “If the federal government fails to act, then the only recourse is to amend the Massachusetts Constitution,” the report said. “Such a change on the federal level, however, will rectify the perceived inequalities in counting prisoners and eliminate costly litigation for states to defend redistricting plans based on adjusting prison populations.”
I also talked about this great progress towards a Massachusetts resolution against prison gerrymandering with WHMP’s Bill Newman last week as a guest on his show. Give it a listen, and stay tuned for the resolution to be announced!
