Illinois Valley Times

While debating a bill that would fortify the state's law against prison gerrymandering,  State Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) recently spoke out against all forms of gerrymandering.

Prison gerrymandering is the practice of counting incarcerated individuals in the county where they are incarcerated even though they cannot vote. In Illinois and several other states, the census counts inmates as residents of their most previous living address.

HB 1496 would strengthen the state's law against prison gerrymandering. Spain called the bill and those like it, "selective solutions to gerrymandering."

"Voters should pick their politicians; politicians should not pick their voters. I once again spoke out against gerrymandering on the House Floor last night," Spain wrote in a March 24 Facebook post. In his Facebook post, Spain shared a link to video of him speaking in the House on March 23. 

“Here we are again on the topic of gerrymandering. One of the most important, and unfortunate topics, in the state of Illinois," Spain said on the House floor. "What we know is that gerrymandering is a best practice by the majority party here in the State of Illinois and I would certainly be interested in working with the sponsor on this issue, but I can't stand by and be supportive of the selective solutions to gerrymandering in this example, for the purposes of counting populations where locations of incarceration exist, but not addressing the fundamental issue that is destroying our ability to deliver effective cooperative bipartisan solutions in the state of Illinois and in other places in the country. We need to put an end to gerrymandering in all states."

Spain said that gerrymandering in Illinois was in a class of its own.

"I would remind you – and even heralded institutions like the Washington Post - certainly not known for being a conservative organization - have pointed out that gerrymandering by the Democrats in control of this state is at a master class level, done more aggressively and more partisanly than any other place in the country. I encourage a no vote.”

Prison gerrymandering is not a new topic. NPR has covered the topic as recently as 2019.

"...since the first U.S. census in 1790, the federal government has included incarcerated people in the population counts of where they're imprisoned," NPR wrote. "This technical detail of a little-known policy can have an outsized impact on prison towns across the U.S. for the next decade."

In 2021, NPR wrote about the topic again, noting that 11 states are trying to block the practice. Those states are Washington, California, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. In Delaware, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York, only state legislative districts are affected by the prison gerrymandering bans. In the other states, both federal and state districts are affected.

Spain has represented the 73rd District since 2017. Before he served in the state legislature, Spain was, in 2017, elected to the Peoria City Council as the youngest at-large member in Peoria history, a seat he held until fall of 2016. He is currently employed at OSF Healthcare System as the vice president of Economic Development.