Rhode Island Senate votes to end prison gerrymandering

Rhode Island Senate passes bill to end prison gerrymandering. House to take the issue up by end of March.

by Aleks Kajstura, March 5, 2015

Last night, the Rhode Island Senate passed a bill (S0239) to end prison gerrymandering. As it did last year, the bill passed unanimously (33-0) with bipartisan support.

The bill is similar to those already passed in California, Delaware, New York, and Maryland; the Rhode Island bill proposes to adjust population data published by the Census Bureau in order to count incarcerated people at their home address for Rhode Island’s state and local redistricting. Until the Census Bureau makes the change (as local, state, and Congressional legislators, and over 200 organizations have explicitly urged it to do), it’s up to each state to correct the redistricting data themselves.

We expect the House version of the bill (H 5155) to be considered in the House Judiciary committee by the end of March. Stay tuned for the exact date.