LANSING, Mich. (Feb. 18, 2021) — Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit) and Rep. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) today introduced legislation to stop prison gerrymandering by requiring the Michigan Department of Corrections to count prisoners based on their pre-incarceration address for census information.
“Prison gerrymandering” requires the state to count inmates in the region that prisons are located, rather than the community an incarcerated individual came from. This practice unjustly awards extra political and voting power to regions in which prisons are located, even though incarcerated individuals cannot vote or participate in the surrounding community.
Senate Bill 151 and House Bill 4276 would count prisoners, for census purposes, as members of the community in which their address exists.
“Prisoners are people too — they have a family and they come from a community, oftentimes completely different from where they are incarcerated,” Sen. Santana said. “If we want to be a truly representative democracy, these individuals must be counted in the communities from which they came, and which they will likely return to after their brief period of incarceration.”
In Michigan, there are three communities where at least 40% of the city or village’s population is made up of incarcerated individuals, including St. Louis, Mich., whose population is nearly 50% incarcerated individuals.
“In 2018, the majority of our state cast a vote for districts to more accurately reflect the makeup of our communities,” Rep. Anthony said. “Accurate representation goes far beyond political party, and this legislation will ensure that incarcerated men and women are not used as a springboard to further a political agenda.”
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