Federal judge tells Florida county officials their 'prison gerrymandering' is unconstitutional

In a decision that could have far-reaching impact if upheld on appeal, a federal district judge has ruled “prison gerrymandering” in Jefferson County, Florida, to be unconstitutional.

The practice of counting prison inmates (who cannot vote) as local residents when drawing district maps for elections dilutes the clout of voters in other districts without prisons. And, given the demographics of incarcerated populations are disproportionately heavy with people of color (especially blacks), these prison-gerrymandered districts appear on paper to have more minority voters than is actually the case. What that amounts to is a bleaching of the districts around the prison-gerrymandered ones, giving an edge to Republicans in those districts.

It’s not just Florida. In 2010, New York lawmakers ended prison gerrymandering in that state, although it wasn’t until 2012 that Republican opponents gave up their appeal designed to restore the old method. But in the majority of states, prisoners are still counted for districting purposes where they are incarcerated, not where they lived when they were convicted. This is no surprise because the Census Bureau also counts prisoners where they are incarcerated.

In the old days, this didn’t matter so much because prisons were generally built close to populations where inmates came from. But in the past quarter-century or so, new prisons have been built in rural areas even though they continue to incarcerate minorities from urban areas. The upshot: Black prisoners from urban areas boost the voting power of rural, white districts. 

The effect is large. In the last Census, the black voting-age population of Florida’s Jefferson County came in at 47.6 percent. Remove black prisoners residing in the county’s state prison and the tally is just 32.7 percent.