A new report from the Prison Gerrymandering Project examined �state redistricting reports� to see which states allocated incarcerated persons to their respective home addresses, instead of their prison facilities.
Released on June 10, 2024, the report considered “the 2020 redistricting cycle” and found that, “more than a dozen states took it upon themselves to do what the Census Bureau has refused: end prison gerrymandering.”
The Census Bureau counts prisoners “as residents of a prison cell” instead of their original home address. “When states then use Census data during their redistricting process,” the report contended, “they artificially inflate the population of prison communities and give them a larger voice in government. With such rapid growth in the movement to address prison gerrymandering, it is natural to wonder: How successful were these states? How many people were they able to count at their home addresses?”
With 19 states “already poised to adjust their redistricting data to address prison gerrymandering in the 2030 redistricting cycle,” the report concluded that �most states did remarkably well� in counting prisoners at their home addresses for the 2020 Census redistricting cycle.
How many prisoners were counted at their home addresses in post-2020 Census redistricting
A new report from the Prison Gerrymandering Project examined �state redistricting reports� to see which states allocated incarcerated persons to their respective home addresses, instead of their prison facilities.
Released on June 10, 2024, the report considered “the 2020 redistricting cycle” and found that, “more than a dozen states took it upon themselves to do what the Census Bureau has refused: end prison gerrymandering.”
The Census Bureau counts prisoners “as residents of a prison cell” instead of their original home address. “When states then use Census data during their redistricting process,” the report contended, “they artificially inflate the population of prison communities and give them a larger voice in government. With such rapid growth in the movement to address prison gerrymandering, it is natural to wonder: How successful were these states? How many people were they able to count at their home addresses?”
With 19 states “already poised to adjust their redistricting data to address prison gerrymandering in the 2030 redistricting cycle,” the report concluded that �most states did remarkably well� in counting prisoners at their home addresses for the 2020 Census redistricting cycle.
Our Insights
by Aleks Kajstura, Legal Director, Prison Policy Initiative Standard Deviations
02/11/2025
Our Insights
A new report from the Prison Gerrymandering Project �examined the
02/27/2024
Our Insights
A pair of Montana state senators, one Democrat and one
08/29/2023
View all Related