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

A sample of the comment letters submitted in 2022 to the Census Bureau calling for an end to prison gerrymandering

This page reprints a sample of the comment letters submitted to the Census Bureau in support of ending prison gerrymandering, calling on the Bureau to count incarcerated people at home in the 2030 Census. These letters were written in response to a Federal Register notice published in August 2022. The Census Bureau solicited input as part of their early planning for the 2030 Census.

The following is a sample of the organizations and individuals who explain in their own words why counting incarcerated people at home makes for a more accurate and equitable Census. We also have an archive of comments from 2015 and 2016 in response to previous notices from the Bureau.

If you submitted a comment letter to the Bureau and would like to see it posted here, please forward a copy to us at frn@prisonpolicy.org



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