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
Sign-on letters about prison gerrymandering
The movement has organized a number of national letters calling for an end to prison gerrymandering:
13 United States Senators ask Census Bureau to count incarcerated people as residents of their homes
September 21, 2016
Thirteen Senators write to the Census Bureau to request that the Bureau count incarcerated people at home in the 2020 Census.
LetterTens of thousands of people urge the Census Bureau to count incarcerated people at home in the 2020 Census
Ignoring overwhelming consensus to count incarcerated people at home, the U.S. Census Bureau released its proposal to count incarcerated persons at the wrong location once again for the 2020 Census. Stakeholders interested in a fair and accurate Census count in 2020 submitted comments to the Census Bureau, explaining why it must revise this proposal and count incarcerated persons at home in the 2020 Census. Almost 100,000 people including civil rights organizations, elected officials at all levels of government, former Directors of the Census Bureau and citizens from across the country weighed in to tell the Census Bureau that a prison is not a residence.
For a sample of submitted comment letters, see our FRN 2015 page and our FRN 2016 page.United States Senators ask Census Bureau to count incarcerated people as residents of their homes
July 16, 2014
Three Senators write to the Census Bureau reiterating that the Census' current methodology of tabulating incarcerated people leads to prison gerrymandering, and asking the Bureau to inform the Senators of the “steps it is taking in the near term” toward counting incarcerated people as residents of their home address.
LetterMembers of Congress ask Census Bureau to begin counting incarcerated people as residents of their homes
April 1, 2013
18 Members of Congress write to the Census Bureau, urging it to “take the steps necessary to ensure that Census 2020 counts prisoners at their home addresses to assist state and local governments in accurately representing these populations.”
LetterOver 200 organizations ask Census Bureau to develop solutions to “prison gerrymandering”
February 14, 2013
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.
Letter Press release
Census Bureau’s reply
Prison Policy Initiative article about the replyLegislators ask Census Bureau to change how prisoners are counted
October 17, 2007
New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman and St. Lawrence County Legislator Tedra Cobb sent a letter to the Census Bureau signed by 30 members of Congress, State Senates, State Assemblies and City Councils asking the Bureau to collect the home addresses of incarcerated people in the 2010 Census.
Letter Press release
Recommended Reading:
About the Prison Policy Initiative
Learn more about the organization behind the Prison Gerrymandering Project.
In prisons, Blacks and Latinos do the time while Whites get the jobs
We explore the racial disparity inside prisons.
Rome NY ends prison gerrymandering, Census Bureau can do better
Rome finally corrected the problem of prison gerrymandering within its borders; other cities and counties need the Census Bureau's help.
Prison-based gerrymandering's historical precedent
This is not the first time a policy barred people of color from the polls and transferred their political power to white voters.