Local governments that exclude prison populations

Last update: September 09, 2010

This page accepts reader submissions about local governments that excluded prison populations in their various districting arrangements. As this material is very difficult to collect, please send in any communities that should be on the list. For why this matters, see this article about small Ohio cities with large prison populations that fail to disregard the prison population when redistricting Legislative districts belong to the people, not the politicians

Select counties, cities and towns that exclude prison populations from local redistricting

• Alabama counties: Escambia County
• Arizona towns: Buckeye
• Arizona counties: Pinal
• Arkansas cities: Forrest City
• Arkansas counties: Lee, Lincoln
• California counties: Amador, Del Norte, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Lassen, Madera, Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Tuolumne Counties, plus the proposed (but never formed) Mission County.
• Connecticut towns: Enfield
• Colorado counties: all counties - the states requires local governmental bodies to exclude prison populations from their local districting
• Florida counties: Columbia, Gulf County, Hamilton, Holmes, Madison
• Georgia cities: Garden City, Milledgeville (in Baldwin county)
• Georgia counties: Calhoun, Dooly, Macon, Tattnall, Telfair and Wilcox counties
• Illinois cities: Crest Hill, Galesburg, Canton, Danville, Pontiac, and Vandalia
• Illinois counties: Bond, Christian, Crawford, Fayette, Fulton, Knox, LaSalle, Livingston, Logan, and Montgomery Counties [PDF]
• Kansas cities: Lansing
• Kentucky counties: Boyle
• Louisiana parishes: West Feliciana Parish
• Louisiana school boards: Iberville and Evangeline Parishes (and perhaps other bodies)
• Massachusetts cities: Gardner
• Michigan cities: Ionia and Muskegon
• Michigan counties: Baraga, Branch, Chippewa, Gratiot, Ionia, Jackson, Lapeer, Lenawee, Manistee, Marquette, Montcalm, and Muskegon
• Minnesota counties: Pine County
• Mississippi counties: Bolivar, Greene and Wilkinson - the Mississippi Attorney General advises counties to exclude prison populations when redistricting.
• New Jersey school districts: all school districts - the states requires local governmental bodies to exclude prison populations when drawing school board districts
• New Mexico cities: Aztec City
• New York counties: Greene, Franklin and Cayuga, Chemung, Clinton, Dutchess, Essex, Orange, Orleans, Schoharie, Sullivan, Washington and Wyoming
• Ohio cities: Lima
• Oklahoma counties: Greer County
• South Carolina counties: Allendale, Edgefield, Lancaster, Lee, Marlboro, and McCormick
• South Dakota counties: Bon Homme
• Texas counties: Anderson, Bee, Brazos, Childress, Concho, Coryell, Dawson, Grimes, Karnes, Madison, Mitchell, Pecos, Walker, and Wood
• Virginia counties: Brunswick, Greensville, Richmond and Sussex - the state encourages counties that are more than 12% prisoners to exclude prison populations when redistricting. (Four of the 5 counties eligible excluded the prison population. The fifth, Buckingham County, arrived at the same result by other means: they split the prison population up between all the districts.)