Report: Kansas has “one last chance” to avoid prison-based gerrymandering

The federal Judges drawing Kansas' legislative maps can take a few simple steps and keep Kansas from having the most extreme instance of prison-based gerrymandering.

by Peter Wagner, May 28, 2012

This morning, Brenda Wright of Dēmos and I released a new report: One last chance to avoid prison-based gerrymandering in Kansas.

The report is timed to the two-day federal trial that starts tomorrow morning that will redraw Kansas’s legislative districts. If the Court were to adopt the House’s proposed map, Kansas would end up with a dubious distinction: having the nation’s most extreme instance of prison-based gerrymandering in a state legislative district.

Every 4 residents of House District 40 (in Leavenworth) would have the political influence of 5 residents in any other district in the state. Long-term solutions exist, and, as our report recommends, there is one interim solution that the federal judges drawing the new maps could easily implement.