BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS Senator Lou Correa, Chair BILL NO: AB 420 HEARING DATE: 6/21/11 AUTHOR: DAVIS ANALYSIS BY: Darren Chesin AMENDED: 6/14/11 FISCAL: YES SUBJECT Redistricting: inmates DESCRIPTION Existing law provides that a person does not gain or lose a domicile, for the purposes of the state's voter registration laws, solely by reason of his or her presence or absence from a place while kept in a prison. This bill requests the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC), when adjusting district boundaries for state Legislature, Congress, and the Board of Equalization (BOE), to deem an incarcerated person as residing at his or her last known place of residence, rather than the institution of his or her incarceration. Specifically, this bill: Requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), not later than April 1, 2020, to furnish to the CRC information regarding the last known place of residence of each inmate incarcerated in a state adult correctional facility, except an inmate whose last known place of residence is outside California. However, inmates who, as of April 1, 2020, have been transferred to a facility outside of California to complete their terms of incarceration would also be included. Requires the information furnished by the CDCR to include, for each inmate, a unique identifier, other than the inmate's name or CDCR number, and last known address information that is sufficiently specific to determine the congressional, State Senatorial, State Assembly, or BOE district in which the inmate's last known place of residence is located. Provides that the information may include, but not be limited to, ZIP Code information or street address information from which a ZIP Code can be derived. Requests the CRC to deem each incarcerated person as residing at his or her last known place of residence, rather than at the institution of his or her incarceration, and to use the information furnished pursuant to this bill in carrying out its redistricting responsibilities. Defines "last known place of residence," for the purposes of this bill, as the address at which an inmate was last domiciled prior to his or her current term of incarceration, as determined from court records of the county in which the inmate was sentenced. BACKGROUND Census Bureau Policy . According to information from the United States Census Bureau (Bureau), planners of the first decennial census in 1790 established the concept of a "usual residence" to determine where people would be counted. A person's usual residence is the place where the person lives and sleeps most of the time. Because of the "usual residence" rule, a person who is on vacation on census day (April 1 of each year ending in "0") will not be counted as living at the place where he or she is vacationing, but rather where that person usually lives. The usual residence policy has been used for every decennial census since the first census, including last year's census. While it is easy to determine the "usual residence" of most people, the determination of the usual residence for people living in non-traditional living situations can be more complex. For instance, the Bureau's policy for counting US military personnel who are living on US military vessels with a US homeport is that those individuals should be counted at the US residence where they live and sleep most of the time or at the vessel's homeport if they have no onshore US residence. US military personnel who are living AB 420 (DAVIS) Page 2 on US military vessels with a homeport outside the US, on the other hand, are counted as part of the US overseas population, and are not supposed to be reported on census questionnaires. The Bureau's policy for counting people in correctional facilities on Census Day is that those individuals should be counted at the facility of incarceration. This is true for adults and juveniles, and is true for people who are incarcerated in federal prisons or detention centers, state prisons, and local jails and confinement facilities. Because the state uses population data from the Bureau for redistricting purposes, individuals who are incarcerated in California traditionally have been counted at the place of incarceration when district lines are drawn for the state Legislature, Congress, and the BOE. As described below, however, some local jurisdictions in California choose not to include the incarcerated population when drawing district boundaries. State Prisons and Redistricting . According to the CDCR, California's 33 adult state correctional facilities housed 146,655 inmates as of March 31, 2011. Although these state correctional facilities are spread throughout the state, most facilities are located in rural areas. Because California's legislative districts have such large populations, and because the state correctional facilities are spread throughout the state, the prison population has a smaller impact when drawing legislative districts in California than in other states. Additionally, the prison population has a smaller impact on state redistricting than on local redistricting in California. Nonetheless, according to information from the Prison Policy Initiative, one of the supporters of this bill, 8.6% of the population in the 30th Assembly District, 5.7% of the population in the 20th Congressional District, and 4.3% of the population in the 16th Senate District is incarcerated in state prisons. All three of these districts include the same 7 adult correctional facilities, with a combined population of nearly 37,000 inmates. Inmates and Local Redistricting . As noted above, not all AB 420 (DAVIS) Page 3 local jurisdictions in California include the incarcerated population in district population totals when drawing district boundaries. Because districts at the local level tend to have much smaller populations than state legislative districts, including prison population totals when drawing district lines could result in districts where all or most of the population of a district are prisoners. In 1991, in response to a question from the County Counsel of Amador County, Attorney General Dan Lungren opined that state prisoners and California Youth Authority wards may be excluded from the total population for the purposes of redrawing county supervisorial districts. According to information from the Prison Policy Initiative, 10 California counties have chosen to remove the prison population from the census count before drawing county supervisorial districts. Unlike the policy proposed by this bill, those counties do not attempt to adjust census figures so that incarcerated individuals are counted at their last known places of residence, but rather, for redistricting purposes, each county simply excludes those individuals who are incarcerated in prison from the county's population count altogether. The Citizens Redistricting Commission . Proposition 11, which was approved by the voters at the 2008 Statewide General Election, created the CRC, and gave it the responsibility for establishing district lines for Assembly, Senate, and BOE. Proposition 11 also modified the criteria to be used when drawing district lines. Proposition 20, which was approved by the voters at the 2010 Statewide General Election, additionally gave the CRC the responsibility for establishing lines for California's congressional districts, and made other changes to the procedures and criteria to be used by the CRC. Because Propositions 11 and 20 established the CRC in the constitution, and gave it the independent authority to draw district lines for Assembly, Senate, Congress, and BOE, it is unclear whether the Legislature can require the CRC to adjust census figures for redistricting purposes. In recognition of this fact, this bill does not require the CRC to adjust census figures, but rather requests that it do so. AB 420 (DAVIS) Page 4 Other States . According to information from the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, last year, three states (Delaware, Maryland, and New York) enacted legislation similar to this bill to require census figures to be adjusted so that prisoners are counted for redistricting purposes in their last known places of residence prior to incarceration. COMMENTS 1. According to the author , currently, for redistricting purposes, California's inmates are counted where they are found, rather than based on their home addresses. This contradicts Elections Code Section 2025, which defines a person's legal residence for voting purposes, and explicitly states that a person does not lose that domicile by virtue of the fact that he or she is incarcerated. The current practice also violates the principle of one person-one vote, as it artificially inflates the population of some districts and carries with it the risk that district lines will be accordingly distorted with each successive redistricting. The current practice also disenfranchises communities disproportionately impacted by incarceration statistics, notably the African-American and Latino communities. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, Latinos are incarcerated at twice the rate of Whites, and African-Americans are incarcerated at six times the rate of Whites AB 420 will remedy this by requiring the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation to submit last known residence information on its inmate population to the CRC by December 31, 2019. It will also request the CRC to take this data into account for the 2021 and subsequent redistricting cycles. 2. Future Redistricting Efforts Only . Although the CRC currently is holding hearings for the purpose of soliciting input before drawing new legislative, congressional, and BOE districts to reflect the population figures from the 2010 Census, this bill AB 420 (DAVIS) Page 5 would not impact that ongoing process. This bill applies to the 2020 Census and subsequent redistricting efforts. PRIOR ACTION Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-2 Assembly Appropriations Committee: 12-5 Assembly Floor: 45-32 POSITIONS Sponsor: NAACP Legal Defense Fund Support: 2nd Call A New Way of Life Re-entry Project Advancement Project AFL-CIO African Methodist Episcopal Church, 5th District African-American Redistricting Collaborative American Civil Liberties Union American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Black Probation Officers Association Big Money Griff.net California Association of African American Superintendents and Administrators California Association of Black Pastors California Black Chamber of Commerce California Coalition for Women Prisoners California Common Cause California Labor Federation California Nurses Association California Public Defenders Association and Laborers' Local 777 Caveman Kitchen City Mayor of Pasadena. Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Community Consulting Services Congress of California Seniors Drug Policy Alliance AB 420 (DAVIS) Page 6 Ella Baker Center for Human Rights Friends Committee on Legislation Greater Sacramento Urban League Hispanic United Brotherhood USA Homies Unidos Jade Family Services JERICHO Latino Coalition of Los Angeles Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights League of Women Voters of California Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Living Advantage, Inc. Los Angeles African American Women Political Action Committee Los Angeles NAACP Los Angeles Urban League Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund New Prospect Baptist Church Opportunities Unlimited Charter High School People Who Care Youth Center Play Us Music, LLC RAUCH Christian Community Fellowship Community Coalition Sacramento NAACP Salvadoran Business Corridor Salvadoran Community of La Placita Save Our Future Second African Methodist Episcopal Church SEIU- Local 1000 SEIU - United Long Term Care Workers Union South County Labor, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO Special Needs Network, Inc. SuiteEvents.com Taylor Family Foundation The California State Pipe Trades Council The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The Oakland Youth Commission The Prison Policy Initiative The Western States Council of Sheet Metal Workers The Wiley Center for Speech and Language Development AB 420 (DAVIS) Page 7 United States Veterans Initiative Visiting Angels Ward Economic Development Corporation Watts Labor Community Action Committee West Angeles Community Development Corporation Oppose: None received AB 420 (DAVIS) Page 8