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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 753
AN ACT CONCERNING THE COUNTING OF INCARCERATED
PERSONS FOR PURPOSES OF DETERMINING LEGISLATIVE
DISTRICTS.
SUMMARY
This bill creates a process to adjust U.S. Census population data and
count inmates at their addresses before incarceration, instead of at
their prison address. The adjusted data must be the basis for
determining state legislative districts and municipal voting districts.
The bill’s process requires the:
1. Department of Correction (DOC) to provide the Office of Policy
and Management (OPM) secretary with a list of inmates and
their residential or other addresses prior to incarceration;
2. OPM secretary to ask federal agencies for a similar list for
federal prisons in Connecticut;
3. OPM to adjust the census population counts so inmates are
represented as residing at their prior residential address, not at
their prison address; and
4. secretary to prepare and publish the adjusted data and notify
municipalities that they must use it for determining municipal
voting districts.
The bill prohibits using residences at unknown geographic locations
within the state to determine the average population for any set of
districts.
EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage
DOC REPORT TO OPM 2021SB-00753-R000448-BA.DOCX
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The bill requires DOC to determine the residential street or other
address of everyone committed to DOC custody on or after January 1,
2020. DOC must maintain an electronic record of the addresses that at
least contains each inmate’s last-known residential or other address
before incarceration.
The bill requires DOC, by May 1 in the year following the year
when the U.S. decennial census is taken and the U.S. Census Bureau
counts inmates as residents of the town where they are incarcerated, to
provide the OPM secretary, in a form the secretary prescribes, with the
following:
1. a unique identifier for each inmate under DOC’s jurisdiction on
the date when the decennial census reports population;
2. the street address of the prison where the person is incarcerated
at the time of the report;
3. the residential or other address of the person before
incarceration;
4. information about whether the person is age 18 or older;
5. the person’s race and whether he or she is of Hispanic or Latino
origin, if known; and
6. other information the secretary may legally request.
The bill prohibits including the inmate’s name or anything else that
might identify the inmate. It makes the information confidential and
prohibits its disclosure, except to OPM or as aggregated by census
block for the bill’s purposes.
OPM REQUEST TO FEDER AL PRISON AUTHORITIES
The bill requires the OPM secretary, by May 1 in the year following
the year when the U.S. census is taken and the U.S. Census Bureau
counts inmates as residents of the towns in which they are
incarcerated, to ask each agency operating a federal correctional
facility in Connecticut for a report that includes the same information 2021SB-00753-R000448-BA.DOCX
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as the DOC report (see above).
OPM REASSIGNMENT OF INMATE ADDRESSES
For each person included in a DOC or federal agency report, the bill
requires the OPM secretary to determine the geographic units (census
blocks) in the census that contain the person’s (1) correctional facility
and (2) prior residential or other address. When the inmate’s prior
address is known and in Connecticut, OPM must adjust the population
counts of geographic units reported in the census to represent the
inmate as residing at that address when the census reports population,
and not at the prison address.
For inmates with unknown or out-of-state addresses or residing in
federal prisons for which a report was not provided, the bill requires
OPM to ensure that these inmates are not counted in the geographic
unit of the inmate’s prison. Instead, they must be counted as part of a
state unit not tied to a specific geographical determination in the way
that someone with an unknown state of residency is counted (such as
military and federal government personnel stationed abroad).
OPM PUBLICATION OF A DJUSTED DATA
The bill requires the OPM secretary to prepare and publish the
adjusted data by the later of (1) July 1 in the year following the year
when the U.S. census is taken or (2) 30 days after the U.S. Census
Bureau’s publication of Connecticut state redistricting data. Under
federal law, the census must publish this data for each state within one
year of Census Day. (During the last cycle, Connecticut received this
data on March 9, 2011. This cycle, because of COVID-19-related delays,
the state will likely receive the data in August and September of 2021.)
COMMITTEE ACTION
Government Administration and Elections Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 13 Nay 5 (03/29/2021)