At the Republican Party of Florida’s recent quarterly meeting, Rep. Janet Adkins (R-FL) suggested that the secret to unseating Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) is prison gerrymandering — the practice of packing prisons into a congressional district to boost the population without boosting the voting power.
First, Adkins attempted to make sure her comments would not be published, saying: “Let me give you inside ball game. Are there any reporters in here? Any reporters? OK. So, inside ball game.”
She continued: “You draw [Brown’s seat] in such a fashion so perhaps, a majority, or maybe not a majority, but a number of them will live in the prisons, thereby not being able to vote,” she said.
Adkins has since walked back her remarks, saying her “comments regarding the proposed realignment of congressional district five (as recommended by the Florida Supreme Court) were an attempt to explain some of issues that came up in debate during the redistricting special session. I apologize if my statements offended anyone. Because congressional redistricting is a pending legal issue, I will not comment on this matter any further.”
Brown, a longtime member of the Congressional Black Caucus and Progressive Caucus, represents a district that courts have found has already been unconstitutionally gerrymandered, by drawing a snake-shaped district that packed in voters of color, making the surrounding districts more white and conservative. Brown has protested the new proposed version of her district, in part because it includes 18 prisons filled with people unable to cast a ballot.
Lawmakers are currently in the process of fix the voting maps, attempting to obey an order from the Florida Supreme Court that they not be drawn to benefit any particular political party. But some are resisting that mandate, arguing that it’s a violation of their First Amendment rights. Two Republican Party chairmen have sued the state, claiming the anti-gerrymandering law infringed on their right to free expression.
The state is facing another lawsuit specifically for prison gerrymandering — a prevalent practice in a state where felons are barred from voting not only while they’re in prison, but long after they pay their debt to society. The American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit says it’s unconstitutional for the state to count the thousands of prisoners at the Jefferson Correctional Institution as residents of their prison’s district — which borders on Rep. Brown’s contested area — rather than their hometowns.