Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) calls for Oklahoma to address Prison Gerrymandering, says it impacts Native communities

Legal advocates say a policy known as prison gerrymandering in Oklahoma is allowing communities with prisons to be overrepresented in legislative districts. 

(OKLAHOMA) Every ten years the U.S. Census counts how large the population is in each city and county in the country.  The results of the census determine how congressional legislative districts are drawn in Oklahoma. 

When it comes to incarcerated people, the census counts them as residents of the county the prison they reside within is located, rather than their home county where they are originally from. 

Legal experts say this is called prison gerrymandering, something the Prison Policy (PPI) Initiative says Oklahoma needs to address ahead of the 2030 census count. 

Even though incarcerated people in Oklahoma are counted towards the population of the community their prison resides in, they are not able to vote for the representatives who serve those communities. 

“When you have communities where you know no 10% of that district is incarcerated. They can't vote. That means that the 90 people in that district have just as much power as 100 people in another district, the next one, over which, again, isn't fair,” said Cole Allen, a Criminal Justice Policy Analyst for the Oklahoma Policy Institute. 

Despite potentially giving people in districts with prison a louder voice, some policy experts say that’s not always a good thing for the residents near the prison because of the way districts are drawn. 

“If you have an artificially extraordinarily dense area, like a prison, that gives you a lot more wiggle room, or gives the people in charge of redistricting a lot more wiggle room to draw borders in ways that might not represent the best interests of constituents, but might make it easier for them to get reelected, or might help them pick and choose what kind of constituents or what side of town, let's say they want to actually represent,” said Allen. 

When it comes to addressing prison gerrymandering on a statewide level,Andy Moore, the founder of “People not Politics”, a grassroots effort to end gerrymandering, says the legislature has the power to end prison gerrymandering in the state but doesn’t have a lot of incentive to do so. 

“Each state house member represents roughly 40,000 people and in some districts the actual number of people who can vote is much lower than that, like 28,000 people,” said Moore.  “Where districts that have a prison or two they get large populations that get counted, but they don't get a vote so if you're running for re-election and you have to appeal to fewer voters that's usually easier to get re-elected.”

The loss of representation in urban areas can impact Native communities who legal experts say are already undercounted in the census. 

“With our communities already being undercounted and it already being hard to win representation in state and local government due to smaller population sizes, taking more people out of our community and out of that equation I think only increases the challenges our communities face,” said Allison Neswood, a Senior Staff Attorney for the Native American Rights Foundation (NARF) .

A loss of representation for Native communities is also amplified by higher incarceration rates. 

Mike Wessler, the Communications Director for the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI)told VNN Oklahoma that while Native Americans account for 7% of Oklahoma’s population, they make up 9% of the state prison population.  

“They’re dramatically overrepresented in the incarcerated population so their communities that they’re coming from are certainly losing political clout,” said Wessler.

Michael Olson, the Policy Council for Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform echoed that sentiment telling VNN Oklahoma, “They [Native Americans] make up around 7% of new state prison sentences in 2024 and by far most of those are coming from Oklahoma and Tulsa County.”

The three most gerrymandered districts in Oklahoma due to prison population are 56, 18, and 63. 

14% of the population in  the District that includes Caddo, Canadian, and Grady Counties is incarcerated. 

When it comes to Caddo County, Olson says recent data shows the county’s Native American population has been greatly impacted by incarceration. 

“Caddo County has seen about 300 Native Americans get prison sentences over the last five years and that's about five percent of the total Native American population in Caddo County,” said Olson. “You can see how that starts to really take away from the representation in Caddo County and instead put it in other areas."

Moore says he hopes to get a ballot initiative approved that will allow voters to decide if they want to create an Independent Redistricting Commission that will take the job of drawing Oklahoma’s legislative districts from the legislature and give it to Oklahoma voters. 

However, getting initiatives on the ballot may be more difficult since Senate Bill 1027 passed the legislature and was signed by Governor Kevin Stitt. 

The bill limits the number of voters who can sign a petition to get an initiative on the ballot in an election. 

When it comes to addressing prison gerrymandering and its impact on Native Americans, Neswood told VNN Oklahoma that the role of jurisdiction can pose challenges.  

“For tribal communities and reservations if somebody's taken to a federal facility across state lines the state policy where they came from wouldn't apply and so it's I think probably more challenging,” said Neswood.

Wessler said  that lawmakers should still be willing to engage with people incarcerated within their districts even though those people cannot vote. 

“They still have a right to representation in their government,” said Wessler. 

VNN Oklahoma did reach out to State Senator Lonnie Paxton, the Senate Chair for the Redistricting Committee, but he did not return a request for comment. 

A full report recently released by the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) about prison gerrymandering in Oklahoma can be found here.