New York Times hails “An End to Prison Gerrymandering”

The New York Times cites our research on prison-based gerrymandering in the New York Senate, in upstate counties, and in Rome, New York in an editorial in Monday's paper, An End to Prison Gerrymandering.

The editorial hails New York State's new law to end prison-based gerrymandering for bringing benefits to all and says it should be emulated around the country.

New York to correct miscount of incarcerated people

New law caps decade-long effort to improve fairness and accuracy of data used for state and local redistricting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Initiative, (413) 527-0845, (413) 923-8478
Tim Rusch, Demos, 212 389-1407
Brenda Wright, Demos, 617 913-1967

August 3, 2010 – Today, the New York State Senate passed legislation ensuring that incarcerated persons will be counted as residents of their home communities when state and local legislative districts are redrawn in New York next year. The measure, already passed by the Assembly, was included in the budget package that now awaits Governor Paterson’s signature.

The state legislature and some counties and municipalities have previously counted incarcerated people as residents of the prison location, inflating the local population counts used for legislative districts. Padding legislative districts with prison populations artificially enhances the weight of a vote cast in those districts at the expense of all districts that do not contain a prison.

The bill now on Governor Paterson’s desk.... Read more.

What is prison-based gerrymandering?

See a clip from the new documentary Gerrymandering by Jeff Reichert:

Maryland Governor signs first-in-nation law to count incarcerated people at home for redistricting purposes!

See the Demos and PPI press release:

• Maryland enacts law to count incarcerated people at their home addresses: First-in-nation law will improve fairness and accuracy of the Census data used for redistricting

Or read more about our research and advocacy in Maryland.

If you are new to our work and want to stay informed of new developments, you may want to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and join our Facebook group. —Peter Wagner

New reports:

• Importing Constituents: Incarcerated People and Political Clout in California, by Aleks Kajstura and Peter Wagner, March 2010
• Importing Constituents: Incarcerated People and Political Clout in Connecticut, by Peter Wagner and Christian de Ocejo, March 2010
• Fixing prison-based gerrymandering after the 2010 Census: A 50 state guide, by Peter Wagner, Aleks Kajstura, Elena Lavarreda, Christian de Ocejo, and Sheila Vennell, March 2010
• Importing Constituents: Incarcerated People and Political Clout in Maryland, by Peter Wagner and Olivia Cummings, March 4, 2010

Prison-based gerrymandering dilutes your vote

“There are many ways to hijack political power. One of them is to draw state or city legislative districts around large prisons — and pretend that the inmates are legitimate constituents.”—Brent Staples

Called prison-based gerrymandering, the practice finds its clearest example in Anamosa, Iowa where a large prison was almost an entire city council district. Council districts are supposed to contain the same number of people, but basing districts on non-voting non-resident prison populations gives a handful of residents the same political power as thousands of residents elsewhere in the city.

Learn more about Anamosa:

Census Bureau's Counting of Prisoners Benefits Some Rural Voting Districts by Sam Roberts, New York Times, October 24, 2008

Prisons and City Elections, by Joyce Russell, Iowa Public Radio, November 3, 2009. Listen: m3u mp3

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