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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.
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.