NBC 10 I-Team: Battle lines drawn over how Rhode Island's prison population is counted
As state legislators in Rhode Island redraw political maps for the next decade, a battle is brewing over the prison population and how inmates are counted by the U.S. Census.
Behind the gates of the ACI sits 15% of Cranston’s House District 20 population, as inmates are counted as living at the prison, they're incarcerated in instead of their home addresses.
It's been that way since 1790 when the U.S. Census began, but John Marion of Common Cause Rhode Island said it's time to change.
"It's a problem because it distorts the power of those districts in Cranston," he said.
Marion is one of several advocates calling on the state's 18-member Special Commission on Reapportionment to count inmates at their home addresses, instead of where they're imprisoned.
The argument is it gives lawmakers and voters in those Cranston districts an unfair advantage.
Marion argues the legislators represent a smaller portion of people since convicted felons are counted as part of the districts but cannot cast ballots.
"We think of the idea of one person one vote, but when you have prison gerrymandering it distorts one person one vote by giving certain voters more power in the districts that the prisons exist," Marion said.
However, many others disagree.
Rhode Island Republican Party National Committeeman, Steve Frias, who lives in the district and ran against former House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello twice, said it's not gerrymandering and should remain as is.
"I think we should follow the census. The census counts people where they are at the time of the census and that’s how they've been doing it for over two centuries," he said.
He argues if counting inmates is helping Cranston's population numbers, counting college students is helping Providence.
"College students and other transient populations are counted where they are at the time of the census, not where they came from or where they may be headed to in another period of time," Frias said.
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State Rep. David Bennett has House District 20, which includes the ACI.
He said he's fine with whatever the commission decides, but also points out it's Cranston taxpayers covering the cost of emergency services at the prison.
"Cranston has to supply all the services such as rescue, fire, maintenance, all the stuff like that,” he said. “I think it would be very complicated to take the population and put them back into their district just for voting purposes," said Bennett.
According to Marion, it's more than just voting. He believes continuing to count inmates the way we are now is hurting other communities.
"We believe a majority of folks in the ACI come from the most populous parts of the state, particularly Providence and Pawtucket, and their voting power is diluted as a result. There are parts of Providence that are underrepresented because parts of Cranston are overrepresented," he said.
The I-Team dug deeper into prison statistics from 2020, which show 29.6% of inmates released returned to Providence, 11.9% returned to Pawtucket, 8.9% returned to Woonsocket and 8.4% returned to Cranston.
Still, Frias doesn't believe the prison population is large enough to have a real impact on other communities and numbers show, the prison population has been on the decline.
"Number one, you're talking about 2,500 people in a state of 1.1 million people approximately," said Frias.
Ultimately, the redistricting commission will have the final say.
They're scheduled to discuss the issue next week and whatever they decide will determine how the prison population in Rhode Island is counted for the next decade.
