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

News Roundup

by Peter Wagner, December 28, 2009

A number of new articles and resources about prison-based gerrymandering were posted over the long holiday weekend.

The Brennan Center’s Justin Levitt gave a speech to the International Municipal Lawyers’ Association in Columbia, SC on alternative voting systems and the count of incarcerated persons in redistricting. The text of Justin Levitt’s talk is on the Brennan Center website.

New York City Council update:

On Monday, December 21, the New York City Council voted to endorse S1633/A5946 which would require New YOrk State and its counties to draw fair districts based on data that counts incarcerated people at their home addresses as required by the New York State Constitution.

Coverage includes:

Black leaders press conference update:

On December 16, Black leaders held a press conference in Washington D.C. to call for the Census Bureau to change how incarcerated people are counted. Coverage continued of this important event continued to spread. Some samples include:

Related briefings:

  1. News roundup +
  2. Black leaders urge census to change how it counts inmates +
  3. News Roundup: LATFOR won’t engage in prison-based gerrymandering and Civil Rights organizations will defend NY law +

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