Reform Group Urges West Virginia to End Prison Gerrymandering Before 2030 Census

Reform Group Urges West Virginia to End Prison Gerrymandering Before 2030 Census

The reform group Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) has reignited calls for West Virginia to address prison gerrymandering, a redistricting practice that counts incarcerated people as residents of prison locations rather than their home communities. This approach, used during the last redistricting cycle, disproportionately skews representation in districts that house correctional facilities. According to the PPI, some legislative districts in the state have prison populations making up as much as 18% of their total count, meaning those districts have significantly fewer actual residents with voting power compared to others. Reform advocates argue that this violates the foundational democratic principle of equal…
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Read: NCSL Report and Recommendations on State Inmate Reallocation Efforts During the 2020 Redistricting Cycle.

Read: NCSL Report and Recommendations on State Inmate Reallocation Efforts During the 2020 Redistricting Cycle.

The number of states that reallocate (reassign) prisoners/inmates for redistricting has grown from just 2 during the 2010 redistricting cycle to 13 states in this 2020 cycle. They are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington. The goal of this process is to remove or mitigate distortions in district populations that are caused by correctional facilities that house large numbers of ineligible voters. This entails adjusting census data (which counts inmates where they are physically located) to reflect each inmate's location to be their last known address. The inmate reallocation…
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Time.com Article Lays Out the Case for Prison Gerrymandering Reform

Time.com Article Lays Out the Case for Prison Gerrymandering Reform

Prison Gerrymandering is more an act of omission than commission in that it occurs as a result of the redistricting process unless a jurisdiction acts to reverse it. In the 10 years between the 2010 and 2020 redistricting cycle, nearly a dozen states have committed to rectifying what many advocates say is a distortion in representational rights as a result of counting prisoners as residents of the electoral districts they are incarcerated in as opposed to the districts they resided in prior. Time.com offers this recent article that describes the issue in practical terms and makes the case for nationwide…
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NCSL Overview: Reallocating Incarcerated Persons for Redistricting

NCSL Overview: Reallocating Incarcerated Persons for Redistricting

In this recent article, the National Conference of State Legislatures gives an overview of the fairly recent practice of prisoner reallocation in redistricting. This process refers to counting prisoners at their home address for redistricting purposes instead of the prison's address - which is what the census does. Prisoner reallocation involves obtaining records from prison officials and careful adjustment of official census data files. This overview explains the practice and how it relates to representation. Since this article was first published, Illinois became the tenth state to mandate prisoner reallocation beginning in 2030. Feb. 18, 2021: States redistrict their legislative…
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Illinois Becomes the 10th State to Count Prisoners at Home for Redistricting

Illinois Becomes the 10th State to Count Prisoners at Home for Redistricting

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law on Tuesday a measure that would require state prisoners to be counted at their home address for redistricting beginning in 2030. Illinois joins nine other states with similar provisions, they are California, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Washington State. The process of counting prisoners at home versus the prison is "prisoner reallocation." Read the Prison Policy Initatives' press release below. For immediate release — On Tuesday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed an omnibus criminal justice package that (among several victories) makes Illinois the tenth state to end prison…
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Video: Gerrymandering and Reform Explained in 13 Minutes

Video: Gerrymandering and Reform Explained in 13 Minutes

Need a quick primer on gerrymandering and reform? This just-released video produced by CNBC reviews the entire redistricting landscape regarding gerrymandering and reform efforts over the past two decades. All in just 13 minutes. While it makes the case for reform, it does a swell job at describing many topics. Watch it for a succinct description and review of various hot button issues in redistricting including partisan gerrymandering, redistricting commissions, the Voting Rights Act, prison gerrymandering, census data and citizenship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s6erd5MbEY&feature=youtu.be
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