NAACP Sues Connecticut over Prison Gerrymandering Bringing First State-Wide Challenge in Nation

NEW HAVEN, CT —The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), together with the NAACP Connecticut State Conference and individual NAACP members who live in five of the most overcrowded Connecticut state legislative districts, filed suit in federal court today to challenge the practice of counting prisoners as residents of the state legislative districts where they are incarcerated rather than in their home districts—a practice known as “prison gerrymandering.” Connecticut, like many states, disenfranchises prisoners and has concentrated its prisons primarily in rural areas. The effect is that white, rural voters in the districts where prisons are located have their electoral power unconstitutionally inflated, at the expense of voters of colour in other, over-crowded districts.

Press-call participants to include:

• Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO

• Brad Berry, NAACP General Counsel

• Scot X. Esdaile, President of NAACP Connecticut State Conference

• Connecticut State Senator Gary Winfield

• Keturah James, Law Student Intern, Rule of Law Clinic, Yale Law School

• Germano Kimbro, Plaintiff and formerly incarcerated individual

“Prison gerrymandering is an unconstitutional and intentional misrepresentation of voting power that we are committed to ending,” said NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson. “This practice is one aspect of a war of voter suppression targeting communities of color and reducing the integrity of the vote.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, is the first statewide challenge to the practice of counting prisoners where they are incarcerated. The plaintiffs seek to compel the State of Connecticut to adopt a new redistricting map that counts incarcerated individuals in their home state legislative districts rather than in the districts where they are being incarcerated, thereby safeguarding the Fourteenth Amendment principle of “one person, one vote.”

“This process is a stain on our democracy and a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment,” explains Bradford Berry, General Counsel of the NAACP. “Like other forms of voter suppression it reduces the power of one community while inflating the power of another and it’s time to end it.”

Although a number of states continue to engage in this practice, Connecticut has some of the worst discrepancies in population numbers between its prison districts and most populated districts. According to the complaint, when prisoners are reallocated to their home districts, the population of District 59, where three state prisons are located, has an overall population that is more than 15% smaller than the most populated district in the state. The effect is that the vote of a person in that prison district counts for 15% more than each vote of a person in the largest district.

“Connecticut is a state of extreme inequality with wealth concentrated in the suburbs and poverty in our urban areas; prison gerrymandering represents another way in which resources disproportionately favor suburban communities,” said Scot X. Esdaile, President of the NAACP Connecticut State Conference. “Our members are directly impacted by this process which not only siphons off our families through mass incarceration but siphons off our political power as well.”

“This is about making sure everyone gets an equal voice,” said Germano Kimbro, a formerly incarcerated individual and plaintiff in the case. A resident of District 97, one of the most overcrowded state legislative districts in Connecticut, Kimbro argues “My vote shouldn’t count less than someone else’s just because they live near a state prison.” 

“The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution requires Federal and State governments to follow the principle of “one person, one vote” when drawing legislative district lines. Each person’s vote is to be equal to that of their fellow citizens,” explains Alden Pinkham, a student in Yale Law School’s Rule of Law Clinic. “Using prisoners to inflate the population of the districts where prisons are located violates this principle.”

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are represented by the Rule of Law Clinic at Yale Law School and the NAACP.