Hearing Tuesday to Count Prisoners in Their Communities Rather Than Their Cellblocks (UPDATE)
Posted by: Bruce Reilly
in Crime & Criminal Justice
on March 09, 2010 
UPDATE: Post-hearing lowdown can be found HERE.
A hearing will be held tomorrow in the House Judiciary Committee at 4pm to weigh the current practice of counting prisoners as residents of Cranston, thereby artificially adding people to House Districts 15 and 16, and Senate District 27. Being a Census year, the General Assembly will be redistricting in 2011 based on data from 2010. Supporters of the move to count prisoners as residents of their last known address include Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Common Cause, the ACLU, Prison Policy Initiative, Demos, and the National Urban League.
Rep. Joe Almeida put in legislation (H 7833) after looking at the figures, and commented, “Its all about fairness. These folks come from districts around the state, and will be returning to them upon release. When I found out people are working to make this change around the country, I wanted Rhode Island to keep pace.”
A companion Senate bill (S 2452) is sponsored by Harold Metts, and co-sponsored by Juan Pichardo, Rhoda Perry, Maryellen Goodwin, and Paul Jabour.
Current RI election law is clear that voters do not lose their residency by going to college, the military, or prison. However, the districting process has relied completely upon federal census data, without updating it to exclude prisoners from Cranston. Revising residency data is unlikely to have any bearing on actual elections, but will provide a more equitable distribution of resources amongst cities and towns.
This bill would capitalize on the recent move by the Federal Census to make it easier to count prisoners, a move aided by the presence of National Urban League President Marc Morial as chairman of the Census Advisory Board. RI would join more than 100 counties and other forms of local government that currently factor-out the prison populations when districting. Similar legislation is currently pending in New York, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, and Wisconsin.
More information can be found a thttp://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/ri.html
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written by brassband, March 08, 2010
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written by Bruce Reilly, March 08, 2010
Please read Chapter 17-1-3.1(a):"A person can have only one domicile, and the domicile shall not be considered lost solely by reason of absence for any of the following reasons: (2) Confinement in a correctional facility; (b) the following shall be considered prima facie evidence of a person's residence for voting purposes: (11) The address furnished to governmental agencies with which the voter has contact." [edited for relevance]
Outside of Cranston folks at the ACI or Wyatt, nobody is reporting to the DOC or BOP that their address is "Howard Ave, Cranston" upon arrest. Both government agencies have records of where these people are residents, and THIS is the population as referred to in the Constitution.
It is an easy argument to be a violation of Equal Protection USCA 14 that Cranston residents enjoy the fruits of population without representation, to the detriment of 950,000 other Rhode Islanders.
Go to the link and you will find US Supreme Court rulings on the matter.
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