View source for Resolution Regarding Prison Populations and Redistricting Exposed

The '''Resolution Regarding Prison Populations and Redistricting''' was considered by ALEC's [https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Public_Safety_and_Elections_Task_Force Public Safety and Elections Task Force] at the 2010 States and Nation Policy Summit on December 2, 2010. {{AEXTF2011}}

==ALEC Draft Bill Text==

Summary

This resolution opposes the practice of prison-based gerrymandering and encourages states to count prisoners as members of their pre-incarceration communities for the purposes of redistricting.


Model Resolution

WHEREAS, obtaining an accurate count of the population is vital to representative democracy; and

WHEREAS, our basic democratic principles require State and Local governments to draw district boundaries so that each district contains approximately the same population, ensuring that all residents have equal representation in government; and,

WHEREAS, most State and Local governments rely on U.S. Census data to redraw their districts, but the Census Bureau currently counts incarcerated people as residents of the prison location instead of their pre-incarceration address, despite the fact that many incarcerated people are ineligible to vote, artificially enhancing the vote of citizens in districts with prisons while effectively diluting the vote of all other people living outside these districts; and,

WHEREAS, redistricting is a prerogative of the States and Local governments; and,

WHEREAS, The Census Bureau has agreed to provide data to State and Local governments in time to allow them to adjust population data to take prison populations into account ; and,

WHEREAS, the most equitable remedy to this problem is to count incarcerated persons as residents of their pre-incarceration locations for districting purposes along; and

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the American Legislative Council (ALEC) encourages the States to count prison populations as residents of their pre-incarceration communities for purposes of redistricting.