3 of 4 New Britain Representatives Vote to End Prison Gerrymandering

Rep. Bobby Sanchez (D-25), Rep. Peter Tercyak (D-26) and Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-24) all voted to end prison gerrymandering in Connecticut, while Rep. William Petit (R-22) voted to maintain it. The legislation was approved 95 to 49 in the State House of Representatives on May 12, 2021.

“Prison gerrymandering” is the practice, widely criticized as racist, that takes voting power in the state legislature from communities like New Britain and gives that voting power to towns where prisons are located. Census figures have historically counted incarcerated people where they are imprisoned, not where their last permanent addresses were.

“Our state’s justice system imprisons Black people at a rate almost ten times that of whites,” said Cheri Quickmire, Executive Director of Common Cause in Connecticut. “Communities where prisons are built are predominantly white and rural; while the communities that many incarcerated people call ‘home’ are generally non-white and metropolitan areas.”

“The shameful 230-year-old practice called ‘prison gerrymandering’ has meant that power has been redistributed unfairly,” Quickmire added, “Communities where prisons are built have gotten an outsize say in Connecticut elections at the expense of other areas. That’s because most incarcerated people can’t vote; so when a voting district included a prison population, the district contained fewer voters and fewer votes were needed to elect its officials.”

“Prison gerrymandering is a form of vote suppression,” said Common Cause Chair Bilal Dabir Sekou, PhD. “It dilutes the value of Black votes while enhancing the value of white votes.” The issue is especially sensitive right now because state and local legislative districts that will be in place for a decade will soon be created, after 2020 census data was released.

A 2012 legislative report showed that the number of New Britain residents who would not have been counted in New Britain for legislative apportionment was 754.

The legislation, Senate Bill 753 was previously approved in the Senate on Wednesday by a 35 to 1 vote. Sen. Rick Lopes (D-6) voted to approve the legislation.

In the Senate, most Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the change, but, in the House, only one Republican voted to end prison gerrymandering.

After the legislation was approved in the Senate, Corrie Betts, Criminal Justice Chair of the NAACP Connecticut. “Prison gerrymandering operates as a modern day Three-Fifths Clause by disenfranchising Black communities.”

“We are disappointed that the amended bill excludes incarcerated people serving life sentences without the possibility of release from its coverage and continue to stand on behalf of all incarcerated people,” said Betts. “Nonetheless, prison gerrymandering is an intolerable, racist practice,” applauding the approval of legislation to abolish it.

Editor’s note: Source material referred to in the CT Mirror article, “Senate votes to end prison gerrymandering,” on May 5, 2021 was used in this article.