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Message from NAACP Philadelphia President Catherine Hicks:

Today City Council introduced legislation to address the prisoner gerrymandering issue within Philadelphia. Incarcerated individuals are not counted in the number of their home residence, but the prison facility. As we know black and brown people are incarcerated at a disproportionate rate.

This legislation would correctly allocate over 7,500 prisoners in state and county jails into Philadelphia’s 10 Council districts, according to their last known addresses in Philadelphia.

“During our recent redistricting process, we heard from the public as well as from advocates for persons incarcerated in state and county jails, who originally are from Philadelphia,” said Council President Clarke (5th District). “We heard them, and as we said at the time, we would do the additional work needed to correct count these individuals, and apportion them into their correct home Council district. That’s what this legislation does.”

A public hearing will take place in Council, and if the bill passes it will go to the Mayor’s office for consideration. No date has been provided at this time.

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