During the Connecticut General Assembly’s 2021 Regular Session, An Act Concerning the Counting of Incarcerated Persons for Purposes of Determining Legislative Districts (Public Act 21-13) passed the Senate and the House and was signed into law on May 26, 2021 by Governor Lamont.

Public Act 21-13 creates a process to adjust the U.S. Census Bureau population data provided to the state to allow for most inmates to be counted at their address before they began their period of incarceration. Prior to enactment of the act, these inmates were counted at their correctional facility address. The act excludes from the adjustments inmates serving a life sentence without the possibility of release. The act requires that the adjusted and unadjusted data be used as part of the reapportionment process, governed by Article III, Section 6 of the Connecticut Constitution, for purposes of determining state legislative and municipal voting districts.

The process the act establishes begins with the Department of Correction (DOC) providing data, for each inmate under its jurisdiction along with additional information outlined in the act, to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM). OPM is required to request the same data from the federal correctional facility located in the state. OPM is responsible for analyzing the data received and reassigning, where appropriate in accordance with the act, inmates’ addresses.

A table of the adjusted population counts is published on the Connecticut Open Data Portal here and a summary of town-level results is here. The map below displays blocks that gained population through the adjustment process.