The Integrated Justice Alliance (IJA) requests the help of New Jersey’s social justice community to assist in, “righting a wrong in New Jersey commonly referred to as Prison Based Gerrymandering (PBG)”. This practice is outlawed in several states and New Jersey State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D) has sponsored Senate Bill S-1055 to make this unethical practice illegal in our state too.
S-1055 requires incarcerated individuals to be counted at their residential address for legislative redistricting purposes. The current practice of PBG permits the communities that house prisons to claim inmates as residents of their town. This allows those municipalities to lay claim to funds which might otherwise flow into inmates’ home communities and benefit their families. It also skews the fundamental democratic principle of one man, one vote, on which our country’s political system is based – as New Jersey prison inmates are not allowed to vote during the term of their incarceration.
Meeting of the Senate State Government Committee
Monday May 14,2012 @ 1:00pm
Committee Room 7, 2nd Floor
State House Annex
Trenton, NJ
View agenda
Brother Aula Maarufu Sumbry writes in his invitation:
Please pass the word so we can pack that room. Even if you don’t plan to actually give testimony please show up. You can fill out a white slip in the hearing room stating your name and or organization and state that you support S1055 but have no need to speak. It would be fantastic if we could have a pile of those slips in addition to our verbal/written testimony. This is our first chance to make a direct impression/impact on a senate committee as IJA, help us make it count!
Peter Wagner of the Prison Policy Initiative is trying to have one of the lawyers who fought and won the challenge to the New York State Prison Based Gerrymandering law before the New York State Supreme Court be there. Let’s make every effort to be there in support of fundamental fairness.
Aula Maarufu Sumbry
609-638-7635
brotheraula@yahoo.comIntegrated Justice Alliance Co-Chairman and
Chairman, IJA Racial and Economic Disparities Committee
Omega Psi Phi Corridor IV (New Jersey)
Deputy Corridor IV Representative
Omega Fatherhood & Mentoring Facilitator
Delta Upsilon (Trenton Area) Social Action Committee Chairman
Trenton Anti-violence Steering Committee Member
Trenton NAACP Prison Committee, Chairman
Related Documents
View one-page synopsis about NJ S-1055 written by the Integrated Justice Alliance.
View previous testimony given by Integrated Justice Alliance (IJA) members.
Additional information on the implications of Prison Based Gerrymandering in New Jersey at http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/50states/NJ.html.
S1055 would create a new dataset that counts incarcerated people at home to be used for political redistricting purposes. It won’t affect funding, because no funding formula is based on redistricting data.As a side matter, our research at the Prison Policy Initiative has found that counting incarcerated people in the wrong spot has very little impact on funding. The real impact is on the political process and the legitimacy of legislative decision making.