Please End Prison Gerrymandering in Michigan prior to the 2030 census
Sample language to adapt for an email, letter (or phone call):
Voting Access for All Coalition is asking you to stand with us in support of ending prison gerrymandering in the State of Michigan. Fair maps are at the heart of our democracy—and to move the needle on social justice, we must ensure that all voices carry equal weight.
Will you take action today and help fight for the representational rights of people who are incarcerated?
Background Why Voting Access For All Coalition (VAAC) Is committed to abolishing Prison Gerrymandering
When creating legislative districts, Michigan currently counts incarcerated people as residents of the places where prisons are located rather than in the communities where they are from and where their families live.
This unfair practice, which strips political power from one community and gives it to another, is called prison gerrymandering.
- Prison gerrymandering unfairly inflates the population and political power of districts in which prisons are located at the expense of urban areas, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s “one person, one vote” standard.
- By counting incarcerated people in prison towns where they have no connections, prison gerrymandering effectively denies incarcerated people meaningful representation, and undermines their reentry into their home communities where they should be counted.
- Prison gerrymandering has a pronounced racial effect, harming people and communities of color.
What’s the Harm of Prison-Based Gerrymandering?
When people are counted as “residents” of their prison cells, it results in a population skew that ensures the bodies of mostly Black, Indigenous, people of color in prison are used to bolster the voting strength of the largely white, rural districts where incarceration facilities are located. This process touches the lives of millions by diluting the voting strength of home communities.
Census data is used to draw state and congressional legislative districts, so the number of people in your district matters. Because redistricting happens only once per decade (the next census is in 2030), this unfair distribution of power continues long after the people who are incarcerated return home.
Because of prison gerrymandering, our communities are not only robbed of fair representation, but also of access to resources that we could benefit from. Population numbers are used to allocate funding for things that directly impact the quality of life in a community and support things like hospitals, fire departments, schools, roads, and resources for job seekers. The resources we need to thrive just aren’t here. That’s the destructive impact of prison gerrymandering.
Will you help advocate to Change this practice?
Please send a message to your Representatives and State Senator urging them to support fair maps to ensure that our voices are heard and that everyone has access to resources that improve the quality of life in our communities.
NEXT STEPS
Choose one of the sample comments provided below or write your own version
Copy and paste the comment in an email
- To find the contact info for your State Senator and State Representative, use the links below to access the State of Michigan Directory:
Michigan House of Representatives Website: Find Your Representative
Use the subject line: We Need Fair Maps, NOW!
Email the comment before Wednesday , May 17: 2023.
Sample language to adapt for an email, letter (or phone call):
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