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.

Can you help us continue the fight? Thank you.

—Peter Wagner, Executive DirectorDonate

Impact on democracy at the state level

See our explainers about how redistricting works and why counting less than 1% of the U.S. population in the wrong place has such a significant effect:

District analysis from prior decades:

After the in the 2000 and 2010 redistricting cycles, we analyzed 37 states, district by district, to determine the problems caused by the Census Bureau's method of counting people in prison:

Research in other states is ongoing. Where full district analyses are not yet available for your state, see our report: Fixing prison-based gerrymandering after the 2010 Census: A 50 state guide.



Stay Informed


Get the latest updates:



Share on 𝕏 Donate