Picture this: incarcerated Ohioans are counted not as residents of their homes, but as residents of the prisons they inhabit. This inequitable practice, known as prison gerrymandering, occurs during the redistricting process. Prison gerrymandering means that incarcerated individuals are counted as residents of the districts where their prisons are located instead of their actual home addresses. This practice grants excessive political influence to districts that house prisons over those that do not, and results in diminished voting power in certain communities and the misallocation of federal funding. Together, Ohioans can come together to reject this undemocratic practice.
Districts are drawn every ten years using U.S. Census data, but according to the most recently available data, the average person incarcerated in Ohio spends 2.59 years in prison before returning home. Under Ohio law, Ohioans currently incarcerated on a felony conviction cannot vote. By inflating the population size in districts with prisons, Ohioans’ voting powers become skewed. For example, if someone from Hamilton County is incarcerated on a felony conviction in a neighboring rural county, they are not counted as a resident of their home county of Hamilton, but rather the rural county where they are incarcerated– even though they cannot vote in that rural county. Once they are released from prison, they are likely to return to their home in Hamilton County. In short, most Ohioans never cast a ballot or live in the counties they are incarcerated in, but all the political and federal benefits go to their incarcerating county.
This inequitable system weakens the voice of affected communities and perpetuates the marginalization of minority groups. We know Black and Brown Ohioans suffer more than any other demographic from mass incarceration, and the counties benefiting from prison gerrymandering often have higher percentages of white residents.
In addition to skewing the political power of Ohioans, prison gerrymandering also impacts federal dollars received. One of the most significant considerations the federal government assesses when allocating federal dollars is population size, which is determined every 10 years through the U.S Census. By counting incarcerated individuals as residents of the county their prison is in, the home communities of incarcerated people lose millions of dollars over that 10-year span. This has devastating repercussions on the top 6 largest counties, Franklin, Hamilton, Cuyahoga, Summit, Montgomery, and Lucas, where almost half the incarcerated population in Ohio calls home.
Thankfully, there is a solution to end prison gerrymandering. Ohio can join the more than 13 states that have successfully in ended this undemocratic process via legislation. Ohio lawmakers can introduce and support bills that explicitly prohibit the practice of counting incarcerated Ohioans as residents of prison locations for redistricting purposes. These bills should aim to ensure that individuals are counted at their original home addresses, allowing for more accurate representation of their communities and appropriate allocation of federal dollars. This type of legislation would be aligned with Ohio’s current residency law, which explains that one’s residence is a location in which they consider permanent not temporary. A residence is a fixed place that, when absent, one plans to return.
Further, Ohio cities do not have to stay stagnant waiting for legislation to move. In addition to pushing for statewide legislation to end prison gerrymandering, cities can individually choose how to adjust their census data before redistricting. For example, in 2000, Lima, Ohio adjusted Census data by removing the prison population before redistricting the city in order to ensure that each ward in the city was more equally represented. But, this doesn’t entirely solve the problem, as incarcerated people of Lima were not able to be counted as residents of their hometowns. However, Lima took the steps it could without legislative support. More cities can follow suit, ultimately lessening the impact of prison gerrymandering, upholding democracy in their city, and pushing the Ohio legislature to take action.
Prison gerrymandering undermines the principles of equal representation and distorts the allocation of resources and political power. It is necessary for Ohio to ensure fair and accurate representation for all residents, regardless of their incarceration status. Representation that includes political representation, accurate federal funding, and upholding the sacred principle of one person, one vote.
