| Affiliations: | Race and Ethnic Studies Research Leadership |
| Project Leader: | Kristy Pathakis, Ph.D kpathakis@tamu.edu Political Science |
| Meeting Times: | Wednesdays, time TBD |
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Team Size:
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4 |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Opportunity will be of particular interest to students who wish to gain a better understanding of criminal justice legislation, how prison locations are determines, and general research skills, especially if considering graduate school.
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Team Needs:
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To begin, RAs will code criminal justice legislation from several states based on whether the legislation is punitive, reformatory, etc. PIs will provide detailed instructions and feedback for this tasks. Future tasks will be determined as needed. |
| Description | At the end of 2020, the US counted over 1.2 million people in state or federal prisons. Most of these people are not eligible to vote and, in addition to voting restrictions, their right to equal representation is curtailed in many states in a process known as prison gerrymandering. When prisoners are counted in the location of the prison, the allocation of representatives is based on ghost constituents, or phantom populations. These constituents inflate the local count while being unable, in most places, to participate politically. This also deflates the count in the places they truly call home, which tend to be more urban and diverse areas. This phenomenon has gone largely unnoticed in the scholarly community until recently but has meaningful impacts on political outcomes. We examine all states that have ended prison gerrymandering in the last ten years and examine the influence of these changing policies on legislation related to criminal justice. Do legislators legislate differently once incarcerated constituents are counted in their home districts? |