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.

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Cartoon and coverage on lawsuit seeking to bring back prison-based gerrymandering in New York State

Mark Wilson from EmpireWIre has a great cartoon about Senator Little's attempt to bring back prison-based gerrymandering in New York State.

by Peter Wagner, June 28, 2011

Mark Wilson at EmpireWire.com in upstate New York has a great cartoon about the lawsuit seeking to bring back prison-based gerrymandering in New York state:

cartoon about the hypocrisy behind a lawsuit seeking to bring back prison-based gerrymandering in New York State

And this morning, Ashby Jones has a long article in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal about the lawsuit. The article, which is behind a paywall but accessible from some blog links, makes it clear in the final paragraphs that some of the new law’s biggest beneficiaries are the same upstate residents that the Senator-plaintiffs purport to represent:

For instance, in recent years the town of Groveland in Livingston County has derived about 62% of its population from two prisons. The calculation has allowed the Groveland Supervisor to exercise 107 Board of Supervisor votes, rather than the 40 he would be entitled to without the prison, according to Mr. Wagner.



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