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

Resolutions

Formal resolutions and recommendations are an effective way for organizations and legislative bodies to oppose the Census Bureau’s prison count and prison gerrymandering. On this page, we provide some sample resolutions and links to adopted resolutions.

Samples

  • Resolution prepared for Massachusetts calling on the Census Bureau to change where it counts people in prison (see adopted)
  • Resolution prepared for an urban county in California calling on the state to eliminate prison-based gerrymandering
  • Resolution prepared for Jackson Mississippi calling on the state to eliminate prison-based gerrymandering
  • Although technically not a resolution, Essex County Local Law Number 1 of 2003 offers a detailed declaration of why a rural county would not want to consider prison populations a part of their community or their electoral system.

Adopted resolutions

  • Urging the Census Bureau to Provide Redistricting Data that Counts Prisoners in a Manner Consistent with the Principles of 'One Person, One Vote', a joint resolution by the Massachusetts House and Senate, August 2014.
  • Counting Prisoners, City Club of Portland redistricting study committee, February, 2012.

    Our committee concluded that including prison populations in the district where the prison is located distorts the one-man, one-vote principle, giving communities with prison populations more influence than their population of permanent residents would justify.

    Our committee recommends that the Legislature reconsider Senate Bill 720 and pass it in the next session. Passage of such a bill would create greater clarity on how prisoners should be counted, thus removing a potential source of discord from the redistricting process. It would also correct the situation in which certain districts have unwarranted advantage in political representation because of large prison populations.

  • Recommendation 2: Residence Rule, African-American subcommittee of the Census Bureau’s Race and Ethnic Advisory Committee, October 2011.

    “The Committee recommends that the Census Bureau prioritize conducting research as part of their 2020 Census planning to describe a process and the feasibility of implementing changes to the "usual residence" rule to provide a count in the 2020 Census of incarcerated persons at the pre-incarceration addresses, including identifying the best means of gathering such information and incorporating it into Census counts nationwide.

  • Make Redistricting Fair – End Prison Based Gerrymandering, Boston Workers Alliance, July, 2011.
  • Reform of prison-based census counting, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, December 2010:

    “… THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) believes that the Census Bureau should count incarcerated individuals at their addresses of residence, rather than the address of the prison during the 2020 and all future decennial Censuses;

    “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that until the Census Bureau counts incarcerated individuals at their actual residential addresses, the NBCSL encourages states to enact legislation modeled after the Delaware, Maryland, and New York laws….”

  • Recommendation 3 — Research on Alternative Methods of Counting Prisoners, Joint Resolution of the Hispanic and Asian-American subcommittees of the Census Bureau’s Race and Ethnic Advisory Committee, October 8, 2010

    “The Hispanic Advisory Committee (HAC) recommends that the Census Bureau conduct research as part of their 2020 Census planning to describe a process and the feasibility of implementing changes to the ‘usual residence’ rule to provide a count in the 2020 Census of incarcerated persons at the pre-incarceration addresses, including identifying the best means of gathering such information and incorporating it into Census counts nationwide….”

  • End Prison-Based Gerrymandering NAACP, 101st Convention, July 13, 2010:

    “THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP reaffirms the 2009 resolution on ending prison-based gerrymandering; and

    “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the NAACP will continue to advocate to the United States Congress, the United States Department of Commerce and to the public that the Census count incarcerated people as residents of their last home address; and […]

    “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP concludes that until the Census Bureau counts incarcerated people as residents of their homes, the fundamental principle of one person one vote" would be best satisfied if redistricting committees refused to use prison counts to mask population shortfalls in districts that contain prisons; and

    “BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP advocate that the prison population census count not be used in any legislative district at the local, state and federal level.”

  • Support of Illinois House Bill 4650, creating Prisoner Census Adjustment Act Chicago City Council, May 12, 2010
  • Recommendations focused on 2020, African-American subcommittee of the Census Bureau’s Race and Ethnic Advisory Committee, October 2009.

    “The AA REAC recommends the Census Bureau allows prison inmates to fill out individual census forms giving their own preference as to place of residence, rather than continuing the current practice of having the prisoners counted as group quarter’s population where they are incarcerated.

    The AA REAC recommends the Census Bureau provides an opportunity to discuss the topic of prisoners… and political representation in the communities from which they came.”

  • Resolution calling on the New York State Legislature to amend the Election Law so that prisoners are counted as residents fo the county in which they reside prior to incarceration, rather than as residents of the county in which they are detained, 0190-2006, New York City Council, December 21, 2009
  • Resolution calling upon the United States Census Bureau to enforce a decennial census enumeration policy in which incarcerated juveniles and adults are counted in the keeping with the “one person, one vote” principle inherent in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, to insure that on the New York State Legislature to amend the Election Law so that prisoners are counted as residents fo the county in which they reside prior to incarceration, rather than as residents of the county in which they are detained, 2261-2009, New York City Council, December 21, 2009
  • Resolution, NAACP, 100th Convention, July 14, 2009:

    “… THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP, on principle, decries the enumeration of prisoners as local residents as violation of our nation’s fundamental one person one vote ethos of representational democracy, harkening back to the disgraceful three fifths era of constitutionally sanctioned slavery; and

    “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP calls on the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of the Census to enumerate prisoners within census blocks where domiciled at their time of arrest; and

    “BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that NAACP units call upon their Congressional representatives to effect such a permanent change to the Census Bureau enumeration procedures.”

  • Resolution, NAACP, 99th Convention, July, 2008:

    “… BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP will advocate that the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of the Census, that for the purposes of the 2010 census, that all prisoners he enumerated as residents of the census tract wherein they were domiciled at the time of their arrest and/or conviction.”

  • Recommendation 7.2 National Research Council of the National Academies, Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place: Residence Rules in the Decennial Census , 2006, p. 243:

    “A research and testing program, including experimentation as part of the 2010 census, should be initiated by the Census Bureau to evaluate the feasibility and cost of assigning incarcerated and institutionalized individuals, who have another address, to the other location.”

  • Recommendation 10, Census Advisory Committee of the African-American population, October 1-3, 2003:

    “We recommend that prisoners, including those housed outside their states, be counted as residents of their pre-incarceration addresses…”



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