A new report from the Coalition Hub for Advancing Redistricting & Grassroots Engagement, a coalition of good-government groups working to improve the redistricting process, found that work to end “prison gerrymandering” has spread from an initial handful of states to become a part of many state’s redistricting processes. Researchers at the Prison Policy Initiative took note of the new report, since its researchers helped spark the movement a decade ago.
Prison gerrymandering is the term used to describe what happens when the Census Bureau counts incarcerated people as residents of a prison rather than their home communities. As state and local governments use this data to draw new government districts every decade, they inadvertently give more political clout to districts that contain prisons. The CHARGE report follows a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures analyzing states’ experiences ending prison gerrymandering during the 2020 redistricting cycle. In an accompanying briefing, the NCSL called ending prison gerrymandering “the fastest-growing trend in redistricting.”