{"id":12338,"date":"2019-05-07T18:00:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T22:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/from-prison-to-gerrymandering-my-journey-is-the-only-straight-line\/"},"modified":"2019-05-07T18:00:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T22:00:29","slug":"from-prison-to-gerrymandering-my-journey-is-the-only-straight-line","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/fr\/articles\/from-prison-to-gerrymandering-my-journey-is-the-only-straight-line\/","title":{"rendered":"De la prison au red\u00e9coupage \u00e9lectoral : mon parcours est la seule ligne droite"},"template":"","class_list":["post-12338","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"I've always been fascinated by politics. My time in prison in West Virginia enhanced that. Now I'm fighting for #FairMaps and against all kinds of racial-, partisan-, and prison-gerrymandering. Hey-Hey, Ho-Ho, gerrymandering has got to go!","featured_image":4554,"article_type":1103,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":12312}","{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":12313}"],"related_issues":[103,138,2066],"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"Growing up in the Nation\u2019s Capital, I have always had more than a fleeting interest in politics, and while this was not the first time that I had a personal stake in the outcome of a cause - it was my first political rally. Turning the corner toward the Supreme Court, I could see the long line of people standing outside in the cold patiently waiting to get in to hear the oral arguments on the gerrymandering case Rucho contre Common Cause<\/em>. I said so long to my brother and as he drove off I was in awe of the marble columns. As a DC native, I'd seen them before, but something was different about today. I was greeted with warm hugs from my colleagues and new friends at Common Cause and quickly became part of the crowd. I began passing out the signs I helped paint at St. Marks Capitol Hill Church the night before. The signs were cut into the exact shapes of these crazy districts.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\n\"Hey, Hey, ho, ho, gerrymandering\u00a0has got to go,\" echoed off the building. I\u2019d never fully understood the magnitude of the legal precedent set by a case being heard at the Supreme Court until now.\u00a0 Yet, I beamed with pride for everything I've learned, and the reason hundreds of people were gathering to protest the injustice of gerrymandering.\r\n\r\nAt some point during the rally, it dawned on me just how far I've come since Election Day 2016.<\/strong> \u00a0La nuit o\u00f9 Donald Trump a battu Hillary Clinton (je pense toujours qu'il a vol\u00e9 l'\u00e9lection), j'ai regard\u00e9 les r\u00e9sultats des \u00e9lections avec un autre groupe de personnes qui suivaient intens\u00e9ment la politique dans la salle de t\u00e9l\u00e9vision du b\u00e2timent A3 du camp p\u00e9nitentiaire f\u00e9d\u00e9ral d'Alderson, \u00e0 Alderson, en Virginie occidentale.\"\"\r\n\r\nAlderson Federal Prison Camp had been my \u201chome\u201d since March 2016. I was convicted on charges my tax preparation business helped, albeit unwittingly, in a tax fraud scheme. On election night, the ladies and I were glued to the TV as if we had voted. Prison populations tend to follow elections closely because of the hope that the elected official will enact favorable laws for early release or criminal justice reform. \u00a0Like most states, we could not vote because West Virginia law prohibits residents convicted of felony crimes from voting until after they have completed their entire sentences including prison term, parole, and probation. Once we were moved to Alderson, we became residents of West Virginia, not our home states.\r\n\r\nIn the last half a century, the prison population has grown rapidly at a rate of 1000% even though violent crimes have decreased. Currently, there are 2.3 million people incarcerated in America. A major consequence of the rise in the prison population is the skewed reality of electoral districts that contain prisons taking resources away from our hometowns and redistributing them to the small rural towns like Alderson.\r\n\r\nLe red\u00e9coupage \u00e9lectoral des prisons<\/strong> is the practice of counting incarcerated people as residents of their prisons when drawing electoral maps, not of their home communities -- even though people in prison are unable to vote in the prison\u2019s district. The result? A form of gerrymandering that unfairly skews political representation and federal monies towards the rural, whiter communities where prisons are often built.\r\n\r\nWhile some states are taking steps to end prison gerrymandering altogether, some are doing absolutely nothing. \u00a0With Census Bureau data being used today for redistricting at all levels of government, prison populations are the key to who wins in many elections.\r\n\r\nPrison gerrymandering is a problem because it distorts the representation and creates an unfair paradoxical shift in voting power. Except for only two states, Maine and Vermont, incarcerated individuals are not allowed to vote. However, I\u2019m one of the lucky ones as DC is one of only 15 jurisdictions that have immediate restoration of voting rights upon release from prison.\r\n\r\nWhile the solution seems so simple - states can and should prohibit state, county and municipal legislative districts from using prison populations, in reality, it is not. \u00a0States need to develop a system within their state to adjust the Census Bureau redistricting data. While some states have been progressive in addressing the problem, others have not. States such as Californie<\/a>, Delaware<\/a>, Maryland<\/a>, New York,<\/a> et plus r\u00e9cemment Washington<\/a> Les deux \u00c9tats ont tous adopt\u00e9 avec succ\u00e8s une loi visant \u00e0 lutter contre le red\u00e9coupage des prisons dans tout l'\u00c9tat. Une loi visant \u00e0 modifier le Code du Delaware relatif \u00e0 la d\u00e9termination par le gouvernement de l'\u00c9tat des limites des districts pour les personnes incarc\u00e9r\u00e9es a \u00e9t\u00e9 adopt\u00e9e \u00e0 l'unanimit\u00e9. D'autres \u00c9tats tels que Connecticut<\/a>, New Jersey<\/a>, Oregon<\/a>, Rhode Island<\/a>, et Texas <\/a>have recognized the need for reform and have recently introduced legislation.\r\n\r\nIn the end, the best solution to prison gerrymandering is to count incarcerated people at their home communities. This solution would immediately restore balance to political power and end the electoral harm prison gerrymandering has caused."}}]},"yoast_head":"\nFrom Prison to Gerrymandering: My Journey is the Only Straight Line - Common Cause<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/fr\/articles\/from-prison-to-gerrymandering-my-journey-is-the-only-straight-line\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Prison to Gerrymandering: My Journey is the Only Straight Line\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/fr\/articles\/from-prison-to-gerrymandering-my-journey-is-the-only-straight-line\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CommonCause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CC-Share-Graphic-Main9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CommonCause\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/from-prison-to-gerrymandering-my-journey-is-the-only-straight-line\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/from-prison-to-gerrymandering-my-journey-is-the-only-straight-line\/\",\"name\":\"From Prison to Gerrymandering: My Journey is the Only Straight Line - 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