Lawmakers hear bill to end prison gerrymandering; advocates urge counting incarcerated people at home addresses

Representative Cruz introduced House Bill 5538, a measure intended to end the practice commonly known as prison gerrymandering by counting people who are incarcerated at their home addresses for redistricting purposes rather than at the prison location.

Cruz told the committee the practice inflates political clout for districts that host prisons and dilutes representation elsewhere; Rhode Island’s unified prison system in Cranston concentrated the issue. She said prior work during the 2020 redistricting cycle moved Rhode Island toward counting some incarcerated people at home (about 41 percent were reassigned per prior work), and this bill would make the change more comprehensive and ongoing. Cruz said the Division of Statewide Planning’s data team has agreed it can perform the work with minimal administrative or fiscal lift and that the bill’s effective date should be January 1, 2026, a correction she said she would make in the bill draft.

Chairman Corvaci noted that the Department of Corrections may not be able to locate a percentage of individuals' home addresses, which could limit reassignment; Cruz acknowledged that homelessness and missing addresses would make perfect reassignment impossible but said the bill should not be delayed for that reason.

John Marion of Common Cause Rhode Island testified in support and said annual disclosures to the Division of Statewide Planning would allow repeated data-cleaning ahead of the next census. Marion and other witnesses argued the sooner the change is in law, the more time the planning division has to prepare before 2030 redistricting.

The committee completed testimony; no vote was recorded during the hearing.