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
Sections
Testimony
Organizations in Rhode Island
Endorsements
Fact sheets
More information
Press coverage

Rhode Island

The U.S. Census Bureau counts incarcerated people where they are confined not where they are from. Using these counts to draw state and county legislative districts enhances the weight of a vote cast by people who live near prisons at the expense of everyone else in the state or county.

Rhode Island's redistricting commission took steps to address prison gerrymandering when it redrew state legislative lines after the 2020 Census, but it did not permanently and completely solve the problem.



Organizations in Rhode Island

It’s impossible to include everyone who is working toward fair districting in Rhode Island, but if you are looking to get involved, these are some of the people and organizations you might want to contact:

  • ACLU of Rhode Island: Steven Brown
  • Common Cause Rhode Island: John Marion

Endorsers

  • DARE
  • ACLU
  • Common Cause
  • NAACP LDF (See their statement to the Senate and the House.)
  • Open Doors
  • Urban League

Fact sheets


Testimony

Intra-decade - before the Legislature

  • Aleks Kajstura, Legal Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island House Committee on State Government and Elections, H 5613
  • Aleks Kajstura, Legal Director and Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island House Committee on Judiciary, March 6, 2018
  • Aleks Kajstura, Legal Director and Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island Senate Committee on Judiciary, February 13, 2018
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island House Committee on Judiciary, February 9, 2016
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island House Committee on Judiciary, March 25, 2015
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island Senate Committee on Judiciary, February 23, 2015
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island House Committee on Judiciary, April 29, 2014
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island Senate Committee on Judiciary, February 11, 2014
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island House Committee on Judiciary, March 12, 2013
  • Common Cause Rhode Island, before the Rhode Island Senate Committee on Judiciary, February 26, 2013
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, submitted to the Rhode Island Senate Committee on Judiciary, February 25, 2013
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, before the Rhode Island House Committee on Judiciary, March 6, 2012
  • Common Cause Rhode Island, before the Rhode Island House Committee on Judiciary, March 6, 2012
  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, before the Rhode Island House Committee on Judiciary, January 26, 2012

2020 Redistricting - before the Reapportionment Commission

2010 Redistricting - before the Reapportionment Commission

  • Peter Wagner, Executive Director, Prison Policy Initiative, before the Rhode Island Reapportionment Commission, December 22, 2011 (a shorter version of the testimony before the Committee on Judiciary, above)
  • Rhode Island Affiliate, American Civil Liberties Union, before the Rhode Island Reapportionment Commission, October 17, 2011

More information


Press coverage



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