While the attention of the nation’s election law community recently was focused on whether the U.S. Supreme Court would adjudicate claims of unconstitutional “partisan gerrymandering”—the drawing of legislative district lines to favor one political party at the expense of fair democratic representation—Connecticut was wrestling with a different form of improper election practice, prison gerrymandering.
Prison gerrymandering poses the question: Should inmates in Connecticut prisons be counted for legislative redistricting purposes in the “prison district” in which their prison is located or in the “home district” in which they permanently reside?
