In 2010, ahead of the decennial redistricting process, Minnesota’s legislature considered adopting a bold reform: It would stop counting state prisoners as residents of the districts where they were incarcerated, and instead count them as residents of the districts from which they hailed before prison. At the time, this was a fairly novel idea; only two states had taken a similar step.

The proposed reform would have ended what is known as prison gerrymandering, which distorts census counts by inflating population totals where prisons are located—typically rural, politically conservative areas—and lowering them in the places prisoners come from, disproportionately communities of color in urban centers. But Minnesota lawmakers rejected the change in 2010, which, as ever, gave extra political clout to prison communities. After that year’s redistricting cycle, the Prison Policy Initiative found that at least five county and municipal districts in the state had their populations inflated by at least 16 percent, by counting state prisoners, who cannot vote, as local residents.

Minnesota lawmakers again considered fixing this ahead of the 2020 redistricting cycle, and again failed to approve two different legislative proposals, leaving the skewed counts intact on its current political maps. By that cycle, prison gerrymandering bans had become more common, with more than a dozen states adopting reforms in time to affect maps redrawn after the 2020 census. (In addition to states that ended prison gerrymandering in time for the 2020 cycle, Maine and Illinois have also passed bans that will apply for the first time during the 2030 cycle.)

After 14 years of deliberation, Minnesota finally got on board last week: Democratic Governor Tim Walz signed into law a ban on prison gerrymandering in the state. The reform is part of an omnibus elections finance and policy bill that contains other provisions meant to protect voting rights and expand ballot access in general.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240524115446/https://boltsmag.org/minnesota-ends-prison-gerrymandering/