BILL NUMBER: ACR 21	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Davis

                        FEBRUARY 16, 2011

   Relative to redistricting.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 21, as introduced, Davis. Redistricting: incarcerated persons.

   This measure would urge the Citizens Redistricting Commission, in
carrying out its redistricting responsibilities following the 2010
decennial federal census, to deem each incarcerated person as
residing at his or her last known address prior to incarceration
rather than at the institution of his or her incarceration.
   Fiscal committee: yes.



   WHEREAS, Historically, most state governments, including
California, have counted incarcerated persons as residents of the
prison communities in which they are incarcerated when redrawing
election district boundaries following the decennial federal census;
and
   WHEREAS, This practice, known as "prison-based gerrymandering,"
artificially inflates the population count, and hence the political
influence, of those districts in which prisons and jails are located;
and
   WHEREAS, Prisoners are not integrated into, and cannot establish
ties to, the communities in which their institutions of incarceration
are located, and thus are not properly considered residents of those
communities; and
   WHEREAS, Under California law, a person does not gain or lose a
domicile solely by reason of his or her presence or absence from a
place while kept in a prison; and
   WHEREAS, In 2010, the United States Census Bureau agreed, for the
first time, to make information regarding prisoner population data
available to states in time for those figures to be taken into
account in the electoral redistricting process; and
   WHEREAS, The Citizens Redistricting Commission is vested by the
California Constitution with the authority to adjust election
district boundaries for the state's congressional, Senate, Assembly,
and Board of Equalization districts following each decennial federal
census; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature urges the Citizens
Redistricting Commission, in carrying out its redistricting
responsibilities following the 2010 decennial federal census, to deem
each incarcerated person as residing at his or her last known
address prior to incarceration rather than at the institution of his
or her incarceration; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the Citizens Redistricting Commission and to the
author for appropriate distribution.