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Local governments that avoid prison-based gerrymandering
Last update: August 19, 2024
“Many counties with large prisons within their borders have rejected the practice of counting inmates as ‘residents’ when they saw how doing so allowed lightly populated towns near prisons to hijack a disproportionate share of political power while diminishing the power of towns that did not have prisons.”
Prisons and Redistricting, New York Times editorial, December 21, 2011
Ten states (California, Connecticut, Colorado, Mississippi, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Washington) encourage or even require local governments to exclude prison populations during redistricting, but local governments in other states have taken initiative to solve the problem on their own. This page lists county or municipal governments that are known to have avoided prison-based gerrymandering when drawing local districts after the 2020, 2010, and 2000 Censuses. We’re still working on the list of districts drawn after the 2020 Census. If you know of other places to be added to either list, please contact us.
Note: These listed communities avoid prison gerrymandering by various means that all achieve the same result of giving equal representation to residents who live adjacent to and far from the prison. These methods include: ignoring the prison population, cutting a hole in their maps around the prison, overpopulating the district with the prison by the exact amount of the prison population, or splitting the prison population between all districts equally. Not included on this list are the communities like Anamosa, Iowa and Berlin, New Hampshire that abolished their districts as a way to avoid prison-based gerrymandering.
Select counties, cities and towns that avoided prison-based gerrymandering after the 2020 Census
In addition to the hundreds of cities and counties that avoided prison gerrymandering after the 2000 and 2010 Censuses (decades when zero and two states, respectively, tackled the issue), we identified an additional 21 local governments scattered across 10 states that addressed the problem for the first time after the 2020 Census.
It is important to note that this list does not represent the picture of communities that addressed prison gerrymandering; it only reflects places we identified that have done so for the first time this decade — and an incomplete list at that. That's because many of the laws passed in recent years ending prison gerrymandering in state legislative districts also apply to city and county districts.
- Arkansas: Izard County, Jackson County
- Delaware: City of Willmington
- Florida: Columbia County, Jefferson County
- Georgia: Coffee County, Emanuel County, Long County, Monroe County, Montgomery County, Wayne County
- Louisiana: Allen Parish, Catahoula Parish
- Oklahoma: Atoka County, Woodward
- Rhode Island: City of Central Falls
- North Carolina: Granville County
- South Carolina: Williamsburg County
- Tennessee: Hardeman County, Johnson County, Morgan County
Select counties, cities and towns that avoided prison-based gerrymandering after the 2010 Census
- Alabama counties: Escambia
- Alabama cities: Brent, Town of Clayton, Columbiana, Wetumpka
- Arizona cities: Douglas
- Arkansas counties: Hot Spring, Lee, Lincoln, St. Francis
- Arkansas cities: Forrest City, Malvern
- California counties: Amador, Del Norte, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Lassen, Madera, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Tuolumne.
- Colorado cities: Brighton, Cañon, Centennial, Golden, Sterling
- Connecticut towns: Cheshire, Enfield
- Florida counties: Bradford, Franklin, Gulf, Lafayette, Madison, Okeechobee, Washington
- Florida school districts: Bradford County School District, Okeechobee County School District
- Georgia counties: Butts, Calhoun, Dooly, Johnson, Macon, Stewart, Tattnall, Telfair, Washington, Wilcox
- Georgia cities: Claxton, Glennville, Gray, McRae, Ocilla
- Illinois counties: Bond, Christian, Crawford, Fayette, Fulton, Jefferson, Lawrence, Lee, Livingston, Montgomery, Rock Island, Will
- Illinois cities: Canton, Chester, Crest Hill, Danville, East Moline, Galesburg, Jacksonville, Pontiac, Robinson, St. Charles
- Indiana counties: Vigo
- Indiana cities: Crown Point, Terre Haute
- Kentucky counties: Casey, Elliott, Lee, Marion, McCreary, Morgan, Oldham
- Kansas counties: Leavenworth
- Kansas cities: Lansing
- Louisiana parishes: Avoyelles, Caldwell, Claiborne, Concordia, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Grant, Iberville, La Salle, Richland, West Carroll, West Feliciana, Winn
- Louisiana cities: Town of Amite City, Oakdale
- Maine school districts: MSAD 40 (Knox County)
- Maryland counties: Somerset
- Maryland cities: Baltimore
- Michigan counties: Branch, Gogebic, Saginaw
- Mississippi counties: Adams, Greene, Sunflower, Tallahatchie
- Mississippi cities: Holly Springs, Lucedale
- Missouri counties: Cole, Pike, Randolph
- Missouri cities: Bonne Terre, Clayton, Farmington, Hillsboro, Jefferson, Licking, Tipton, Vandalia
- Nebraska counties: Johnson
- New Jersey cities: Camden
- New York counties: Cayuga, Clinton, Dutchess, Essex, Franklin, Genesee, Greene, Oneida, Orleans, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Westchester
- New York cities: Beacon, Brookhaven (town)
- North Carolina counties: Caswell, Columbus
- Ohio cities: Lima
- Oklahoma counties: Alfalfa, Blaine, Greer, Holdenville, Hominy, Woods
- Oklahoma cities: Lawton, Town of McLoud, Sayre, Watonga
- South Carolina counties: Allendale, Edgefield, Lee, Marlboro, McCormick
- South Carolina school districts: Jasper County School District
- South Dakota counties: Bon Homme
- Texas counties: Anderson, Bastrop, Bee, Bowie, Brazoria, Brown, Burnet, Cherokee, Childress, Concho, Coryell, Dawson, DeWitt, Dickens, Duval, Fannin, Freestone, Frio, Garza, Hale, Haskell, Houston, Howard, Jack, Jones, Karnes, Kinney, La Salle, Live Oak, Madison, Medina, Mitchell, Pecos, Potter, Reeves, Rusk, Terry, Walker, Wichita, Willacy
- Texas cities: Big Spring, Brownfield, Bryan, Henderson, Huntsville, Karnes City, Mineral Wells, Post, Victoria
- Texas school districts: Fort Stockton Independent School District, Marlin Independent School District
- Virginia counties: Brunswick, Greensville, Lee, Prince George, Richmond, Sussex
- West Virginia cities: Moundsville
- Wisconsin counties: Crawford
- Wisconsin cities: New Lisbon, Portage, Prairie du Chien, Stanley
Select counties, cities and towns that avoided prison-based gerrymandering after the 2000 Census
- 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
- Louisiana parishes: Avoyelles, West Feliciana Parish
- Louisiana school boards: Avoyelles Parish, Iberville and Evangeline Parishes
- Massachusetts cities: Gardner
- Michigan cities and counties: all counties (Mich. Comp. Laws § 46.404(g)) and municipalities(Mich. Comp. Laws § 117.27a (5))exclude anyone in a state institution who is not a resident of the city or county for election purposes.
- Mississippi cities: Holly Springs
- Mississippi counties: Bolivar, Greene and Wilkinson - the Mississippi Attorney General advises counties to exclude prison populations when redistricting.
- Missouri cities: Clayton, Farmington, Tipton
- Missouri counties: Pike, Randolph
- 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
- North Carolina counties: Columbus
- Ohio cities: Lima
- Oklahoma counties: Greer County
- Oklahoma cities: McAlester, McLoud, Sayre, Watonga
- South Carolina counties: Allendale, Edgefield, Lancaster, Lee, Marlboro, and McCormick
- South Dakota counties: Bon Homme
- Texas cities: Karnes, Post
- Texas counties: Anderson, Bee, Brazos, Childress, Concho, Coryell, Dawson, Grimes, Karnes, Madison, Mitchell, Pecos, Walker, and Wood
- Texas school districts: Beaumont Independent School District, Fort Stockton Independent School District
- 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 eligible counties excluded the prison population.)
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.