PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A federal judge on Tuesday threw out a redistricting plan in Cranston that put all the inmates at the state prison into one city ward.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux found that the plan, which put approximately 3,400 inmates at the Adult Correctional Institutions into one of Cranston’s six wards, had the effect of diluting the voting power of people in other wards. The judge wrote that the votes of 10 residents in the other wards were equal to the votes of seven residents in Ward 6.
“Likewise, when campaigning in Ward Six, a candidate need only knock on seven doors, rather than ten doors in the other wards,” he wrote. “And, when serving on behalf of Ward Six, its officials are only held accountable to approximately 7/10 the number of constituents compared with the other wards. This is constitutionally untenable.”
He ordered the city to come up with a new redistricting plan within 30 days.
The lawsuit was brought by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the plan “prison gerrymandering.”
Felons serving prison sentences aren’t allowed to vote in Rhode Island. Those at the ACI for reasons other than serving time for felonies may vote absentee in the district where they live, according to the judge’s decision.
The judge said the city council must subtract the inmates from the city’s population of around 80,000 people, then redraw the districts with “substantially equal numbers of people in each ward.” City officials may not hold an election until that is completed.
Attorney Normand Benoit, who represented the city, said the city was disappointed by the decision and was reviewing its options: to comply with the order or to seek a stay and appeal it.
Benoit said the city was simply following the process it has followed for decades when it instituted the redistricting plan in 2012.
“What the city did is it simply followed the U.S. census numbers,” he said. “They put them in one ward, as they always have.”
The judge found that only about six or seven inmates at the ACI could be eligible to vote in Ward Six. He also found that inmates at the prison don’t participate in the civic life of the city and the city provides only minimal services to the prison complex.
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