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

Minnesota has enacted legislation to end prison gerrymandering. It is among the growing list of states that count incarcerated people at home for redistricting purposes.

Minnesota

Sections
Legislation
Testimony
Organizations in Minnesota
Endorsements
Fact sheets
Report
2010 Census data
Press coverage
More Information

The U.S. Census Bureau counts incarcerated people where they are confined not where they are from. Using these counts to draw legislative districts violates Minnesota state law and makes democracy suffer. There are 10 Minnesota House districts where state and federal prison populations were counted as residents, significantly enhancing the policial clout of residents of those districts.

Legislation

Ideally, the Census Bureau would count incarcerated people at home or the state would have enough time to develop a solution that would count incarcerated people at their home addresses. But as insufficient time remains for those strategies, a bill could require the state, the counties and other local governments to use their own data on the home addresses of incarcerated people to draw fairer districts.

Model Legislation

  • Our model legislation, customized for Minnesota. The bill directs the state to produce redistricting data that counts incarcerated people at home, and requires its use in drawing state legislative districts as well as county and municipal redistricting: Minnesota model bill.

We also have an archive of legislation introduced in current and prior sessions.

Testimony

Testimony in support of legislation to end prison gerrymandering

Testimony during redistricting

Organizations in Minnesota

It’s impossible to include everyone who is working toward fair districting in Minnesota, but if you are looking to get involved, these are some of the people and organizations you might want to contact:

Endorsements

Fact sheets

Report

  • Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in Minnesota (2010) is our district-by-district analysis of how crediting Minnesota’s incarcerated residents to the wrong districts distorts democracy and violates the federal and state constitutions. Analysis is based on redistricting after the 2000 Census.

Press coverage


More information

  • Legislation: including model legislation, current bills, and archive of past legislative efforts
  • Pathfinder: a guide to resources on prison gerrymandering


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