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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Articles by Jyoti Jasrasaria

Massachusetts redistricting leaders urge the Census Bureau to change how it counts imprisoned people to provide a uniform approach for all 50 states and eliminate costly litigation
Without action on the part of the Census Bureau to change its residence rule for incarcerated people, Massachusetts cannot change its own procedures.
Jul 19, 2016
Nation’s leading racial justice law firm explains discriminatory impact of counting incarcerated people as “residents” of prison facilities rather than their home communities
Prison gerrymandering dilutes the voting strength of urban areas where prisons are fewer and, thereby, weakens the political power of minority communities.
Jul 14, 2016
Law School Professor explains how Census Bureau’s current practice of counting incarcerated people as “residents” of their prison facility results in two harms: misleading data and disproportionate political influence
Incarcerated individuals often have little in common with the residents in the communities surrounding their correctional facilities, and elected officials do not always consider incarcerated people their constituents.
Jul 13, 2016

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