Wisconsin sees dramatic prison-based gerrymandering in new state, county, city districts

New districts in Wisconsin to set new records for prison-based gerrymandering.

by Peter Wagner, July 18, 2011

The Wisconsin legislature is rushing through a redistricting plan so they can lock in the maps before the scheduled recall elections can change who has the power to draw district lines. In that rush, prison-based gerrymandering is poised to have an even greater impact on state, county and municipal districts than it did a decade ago.

The Census Bureau counts Wisconsin prisoners as if they were residents of the communities where they are incarcerated, even though they can’t vote and remain legal residents of the places they lived prior to incarceration. Crediting thousands of people to other communities has staggering implications for Wisconsin’s democracy, which uses the Census to apportion political power on the basis of equally-sized state and county legislative districts.

Wisconsin’s 53rd Assembly district has the highest concentration of prisons in the state. The 53rd District claims 5,583 incarcerated people as residents of the district, even though state law says that incarcerated people remain residents of their homes. All districts send some people to prison, although some districts send more than others. But not all districts have prisons, and concentrating 23,000 prisoners in a handful of districts enhances the weight of a vote cast in those districts and dilutes all votes cast elsewhere.

In Wisconsin, this impact is largest in District 53, where without using prison populations as padding, the district would be 10% below the required size. This gives every 90 residents of the 53rd district the same influence as 100 residents of any other district in the state.

If that seems insignificant, consider that the Supreme Court allows districts to have populations that are 5% too large or small if the state can protect some other legitimate state interest by doing so. The federal judges who have for decades drawn Wisconsin’s state legislative districts have had an even higher standard, allowing only a 1% deviation from strict population equality. The Republican majority of the legislature which drew the new districts took an even higher standard in the Assembly, drawing districts that are, by Census counts, no more than 0.4% too large or small.

California can still curtail prison-based gerrymandering

Prison Policy Initiative and Demos submit testimony and solutions to California's Citizens Redistricting Commission's prison-based gerrymandering problems.

by Aleks Kajstura, July 18, 2011

Friday, the Prison Policy Initiative and Dēmos presented testimony to the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) discussing prison-based gerrymandering and making recommendations on how the Citizens Redistricting
Commission (CRC) can take steps to minimize the impact of prison-based gerrymandering in drawing state legislative districts for California.

In past redistricting cycles, California chose to prioritize population equality so highly that it drew all legislative districts exactly the same size, rather than permitting a small population deviation among legislative districts as most states do. Ironically, without a fix to prison-based gerrymandering, California’s devotion to population equality in redistricting was futile. This problem is illustrated by a cluster of districts drawn after the 2000 Census in the Central Valley: 8.6% of the 30th Assembly district was incarcerated in state prisons, 5.7% of the 20th Congressional district was incarcerated in state prisons, and 4.3% of the 16th Senate district was incarcerated in state prisons. In each of these districts, every group of 91 to 94 people were given as much influence in Sacramento as 100 people from any other district that was not itself padded with large prison populations.

The testimony contains more examples with detailed solutions that are still implementable, even at this late stage of redistricting.

The files mentioned in the testimony can be downloaded here:

• California Advance Group Quarters Summary File
• Block equivalency file for Assembly districts near Kings County
• Block equivalency file for Congressional districts near Kings County

So you want to be a legislator?

So you want to get elected with minimal effort? New video shows that your best bet is to run for office in a prison-gerrymandered district.

by Leah Sakala, July 14, 2011

So you want to get elected with minimal effort? Your best bet may be to run for office in a district with very few actual residents, says a new video by Bruce Reilly, of Direct Action for Rights and Equality.

How? Move to a district with a large prison, make sure the local government counts incarcerated people as residents, campaign to win the support of the handful of actual residents, and voila! You’re in, thanks to prison-based gerrymandering.

Here’s how it works:

Boston Workers Alliance Takes a Stand Against Prison-Based Gerrymandering

The Boston Workers Alliance has released a resolution to end prison-based gerrymandering in Massachusetts.

by Leah Sakala, July 14, 2011

The movement to demand fair redistricting in Massachusetts is growing fast.

The Boston Workers Alliance has released a resolution with both short- and long-term plans to end prison-based gerrymandering in Massachusetts.

Using the video we recently released on how to avoid prison-based gerrymandering in Massachusetts, the Boston Workers Alliance calls on the Massachusetts Legislature to use the allowable 5% deviation from the ideal district size to compensate for the distortion caused by prison-based gerrymandering. They further resolve that there be legislative amendment that ends prison-based gerrymandering in the state by the 2020 Census, and urge the Census Bureau to count incarcerated populations at home in the first place.

They conclude:

That the socio-political, economic and existential implications and consequences of prison-based [gerrymandering] on the inmates’ family, community and the larger society regarding public safety, human dignity and human flourishing should fundamentally inform this process of ending prison-based gerrymandering in Massachusetts since it negates the pristine democratic principles of the American Constitution and the democratic process, thus necessitating an end to prison-based gerrymandering in Massachusetts as the states of New York, Maryland and Delaware have enacted.

Our hats go off to the Boston Workers Alliance for their leadership in the movement to end prison-based gerrymandering in Massachusetts.

Budget Slash Jeopardizes Census

39 national organizations submitted a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee urging it not to slash the Census Bureau's budget allocation.

by Leah Sakala, July 13, 2011

Congress has proposed a drastic cut to the Census Bureau’s budget that threatens current and future operations. The Prison Policy Initiative, along with 38 other national organizations, submitted a joint letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee urging the Committee members to reconsider their recommendation to slash the Census Bureau’s budget allocation.

Our letter states:

We believe the Subcommittee’s recommendation of $855.4 million, which is 25 percent below the Census Bureau’s FY 2011 spending level, puts vital data collection programs in jeopardy and will cripple the agency’s ability to achieve significant savings in the future through innovative methods and greater use of technology.

The proposed budget cut could compromise the Bureau’s capacity to implement programs such as the 2012 Quinquennial Economic Census (required by the Census Act), force the Bureau to abandon early planning work for the 2020 Census, or eliminate the Bureau’s ability to release follow-up data for the 2010 Census, such as the Count Question Resolution program or overcount and undercount estimates.

While the Senate Appropriations Committee is understandably looking for places to conserve federal resources, the cost of stunting the Census Bureau’s ability to deliver the data that our democracy depends on is simply too steep.

Times Union: LATFOR is named as defendant, but not actually defending the law

Not surprising that LATFOR fails to defend the law in court, since it's actually ignoring the law when drawing new districts for New York State.

by Aleks Kajstura, July 13, 2011

Capitol Confidential (a Times Union blog) points out that, in the lawsuit to bring prison-based gerrymandering back to New York, one of the defendants is not actually defending the law.

The Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) is responsible for redistricting in New York, but “hasn’t exactly been vigorous in defending itself in a lawsuit filed about the issue…”

This makes perfect sense: LATFOR is co-chaired by Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany and Sen. Mike Nozzolio, R-Seneca County. Nozzolio has expressed doubts about the legality of a 2010 law that directed LATFOR to count prison inmates at their last home address instead of at their jail cells. Counting inmates in jail has been derided as prison-based gerrymandering, and inflates population in upstate, rural, largely Republican areas at the expense of downstate, urban, largely Democratic precincts.

Several of Nozzolio’s Republican colleagues in the Senate, including Betty Little of Queensbury, are plaintiffs in the suit. LATFOR is so-far ignoring the new law, which is causing groups like the NAACP to cry foul.

“Beware, beware Rhode Island’s coming gerrymander”

John Marion of Common Cause Rhode Island wrote a blog post about Rhode Island redistricting history, warning of the consequences of gerrymandering.

by Leah Sakala, July 12, 2011

John Marion, Executive Director of Common Cause Rhode Island, wrote a great blog post today about redistricting and reapportionment in Rhode Island.

He explains that prior to the Reapportionment Revolution of the 1960s:

Rhode Island was at the head of the class when it came to malapportionment […]. As Scott McKay wrote in a retrospective piece about Rhode Island political history, a century ago, “The foundation of Republican control in the state rested on perhaps the most malapportioned General Assembly in America: Providence, with 30,000 voters, had one senator, as did Little Compton, which once elected a state senator with 78 votes.”

The result was that 7.5% of Rhode Island’s population once controlled the legislature. That would be like having just the senators from Cranston controlling an entire legislative chamber.

Rhode Island has made significant progress towards fair redistricting since then, but there is one reapportionment controversy left:

[P]risoners – yes, prisoners. A movement is afoot to count prisoners at their last known address rather than where they are incarcerated. In fact, according the Prison Policy Initiative, Rhode Island has the most malapportioned state legislative districts in the nation because its ACI is located on one campus.

Will Rhode Island use prison populations to pad the legislative districts that contains prisons to the detriment of every other district in the state? That will be decided this summer, and John Marion argues that unless the voters demand a change very soon, the legislature will proceed with business as usual.

For more on the movement to end prison-based gerrymandering in Rhode Island, see our campaign page.

California Bill to End Prison-based Gerrymandering Advances in Senate

California bill AB 420 has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and will now move to the Senate Floor

by Leah Sakala, July 12, 2011

California is one step closer to ending prison-based gerrymandering!

California bill AB 420, sponsored by Assembly Member Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles), has passed the Senate Appropriations Committee with a vote of 5-3. The bill will now move to the Senate Floor for a vote of the full body.

Some New York Lawmakers Want to Ignore Redistricting Law

Albany Times Union published an editorial criticizing LATFOR for ignoring law to end prison-based gerrymandering.

by Leah Sakala, July 11, 2011

The Albany Times Union has had enough of unfair redistricting in New York.

Yesterday the Times Union published an editorial that criticizes the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR)’s decision to count incarcerated populations in the wrong place during the redistricting process:

[I]f there was any pretense left that [redistricting] was going to be an honest process, the task force threw it away in declaring that it will ignore a law requiring state prison inmates to be counted for redistricting purposes where their homes are, not where they’re incarcerated and have no representative to speak of.

Some lawmakers have sued to bring prison-based gerrymandering back to New York, but the Times Union points out that the task force needs to follow New York’s enacted law that requires incarcerated people to be counted at home, not in prison.

How Massachusetts can avoid prison-based gerrymandering – video

We've released a new video to support the campaign to end prison-based gerrymandering in Massachusetts.

by Peter Wagner, July 11, 2011

We’ve released a new video to support the campaign to end prison-based gerrymandering in Massachusetts:

The script:

How Massachusetts can avoid prison-based gerrymandering

Every decade after the Census, states redraw their legislative districts in order to grant equal representation to equal numbers of people. Unfortunately, states rely on census counts that have a serious flaw.