Help End Prison Gerrymandering
Prison gerrymandering funnels political power away from urban communities to legislators who have prisons in their (often white, rural) districts. More than two decades ago, the Prison Policy Initiative put numbers on the problem and sparked the movement to end prison gerrymandering.
Can you help us continue the fight? Thank you.
—Peter Wagner, Executive DirectorDonate
Can you help us continue the fight? Thank you.
—Peter Wagner, Executive DirectorDonate
- Sections
- Report
- More information
- Press coverage
Oklahoma
The U.S. Census Bureau counts incarcerated people where they are confined not where they are from. Using these counts to draw state and local legislative districts enhances the weight of a vote cast by people who live near prisons at the expense of everyone else in the state, county, or municipality.
Report
- Federal Census policy harms Oklahoma's democracy — but state lawmakers can end this “prison gerrymandering”: Oklahoma's redistricting data once again skewed after the 2020 Census; the state needs to take action to fix the issue for 2030
More information
- Legislation: including model legislation, current bills, and archive of past legislative efforts
- Pathfinder: a guide to resources on prison gerrymandering
- Incarceration data: comprehensive data, research, and visualizations about mass incarceration in the state
Press Coverage
- They Don't Vote, But They Do Count: How the Incarcerated Skew Political Representation in Oklahoma By Keaton Ross, Oklahoma Watch, November 12, 2021
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.
The Census Bureau's Miscount: It's about representation, not funding
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.
Events
- November 12-14, 2025:
Members of our Research team, Wendy Sawyer and Jacob Kang-Brown will be attending the American Society of Criminology annual meeting in Washington, D.C. from November 12 through the 14th. Please reach out if you’d like to set up a meeting.
Not near you?
Invite us to your city, college or organization.