Why end prison gerrymandering? Rhode Island Judiciary Committee hears testimony

Steve Brown of the Rhode Island ACLU and John Marion of Common Cause Rhode Island explain why prison gerrymandering is illogical.

by Aleks Kajstura, April 7, 2015

Rhode Island’s House Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing on H 5155, a bill to end prison gerrymandering. (The Senate just passed their version of the bill last month.)

I wanted to share testimony given by Steve Brown of the Rhode Island ACLU and John Marion of Common Cause Rhode Island. Brown jumps right in to the specifics, discussing with Representative Edith Ajello how prison gerrymandering is inconsistent with state election law:

And this isn’t some quirk of Rhode Island law, in fact most states have similar laws; explicitly stating that an incarcerated person’s home continues to be their legal residence regardless of where they are confined.

And further expounding the illogic of prison gerrymandering in complementary testimony, Marion provides great context for how prison gerrymandering fits into the larger picture of the evolution of proportional representation and redistricting.

For details on Rhode Island’s prison gerrymandering problem check out PPI’s written testimony.

And a special thanks to Grace Mendenhall in our Young Professionals Network for her help with formatting the videos.