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 
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          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 
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          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.

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           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 
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              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
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                   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
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                   United States Veterans Initiative
                   Visiting Angels
                   Ward Economic Development Corporation
                   Watts Labor Community Action Committee
                   West Angeles Community Development Corporation

           Oppose:  None received



































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