...We want to flood the Pennsylvania Redistricting website with as much testimony as we can about prison gerrymandering in the next few weeks. The LRC members need to hear from the public about why we want this undemocratic practice ended. Below we have embedded the website where you can submit public comment. Simply scroll to WRITTEN TESTIMONY, click "Submit Testimony," and a form will appear where you can enter your information and your testimony. 

Some points to touch on:

• Personal stories from impacted individuals! These are the hardest hitting testimonies. If you or a loved one has been incarcerated you’ve been impacted by this practice. Parents talking about trying to get help for their children while they were/are incarcerated or incarcerated people reaching out to local legislators for help and not receiving any. These are all things the LRC needs to hear about.
• PG is in direct violation of the election code which states that no incarcerated individual shall be deemed a resident of the election district where they are being held. 
• PG unfairly inflates population & political power of districts where prisons are located at the expense of areas that don't have prisons. Prison gerrymandering has a marked racial effect, harming people & communities of color.
• PG inflates the population count-& the political influence-of the districts where prisons & jails are located. As a result, the voting power of everyone living outside of those districts is weakened.
• Failing to count incarcerated Pennsylvanians at home for redistricting purposes undermines the constitutional guarantee of “one person, one vote,” with clear ramifications for our democracy.
• PG is the practice of state & local governments counting incarcerated people as residents of areas where they are imprisoned instead of their homes when district lines are drawn. It skews democracy on both the state & local levels & needs to end!

​Again, scroll to WRITTEN TESTIMONY on the embedded page below, click "Submit Testimony," and a form will appear where you can enter your information and your testimony.