NYCLU and Common Cause/NY applaud New York ending prison-based gerrymandering

The NYCLU and Common Clause/NY both applaud passage of the bill that will finally end of prison-based gerrymandering in New York.

by Aleks Kajstura, August 6, 2010

The New York Civil Liberties Union and Common Clause of New York both applaud passage of the bill that will finally end of prison-based gerrymandering in New York.

• NYCLU Applauds State Legislature for Ending Prison-Based Gerrymandering: “The strength of your vote shouldn’t depend on if your legislative district contains a prison or not, and the passage of this provision brings fairness to voting in New York.”
• Common Cause/NY Applauds Passage of Measure Ending Prison-Based Gerrymandering: “Righting This Historical Wrong Is the First Step Towards Reforming Our State’s Redistricting Process.”

Articles on New York ending prison-based gerrymandering

by Aleks Kajstura, August 6, 2010

The New York bill that ends prison-based gerrymandering in the state has been getting a lot of press coverage. Here are our top picks:

• Wall Street Journal: Under New Bill, NYC’s Convicts Won’t Pad Upstate Districts
• Post Star (Glens Falls, NY): I Think Not: Counting Correctly, staff blog post by Will Doolittle.
• Times Union (Albany, NY) editorial: Prison politics in a new light
• Miller-McCune: New York Takes Swing at Prison Gerrymandering
• Change.org: New York Votes to End Prison-Based Gerrymandering
• Amsterdam News: Victory: Anti-prison gerrymandering bill passes
• North Country Public Radio: Inmates to be excluded from North Country districts (audio), by David Sommerstein
• RI Future.org: New York to Become 3rd State Eliminating Prison-Based Gerrymandering

North Country Public Radio identifies the biggest impact of end to prison-based gerrymandering

Impact of ending prison-based gerrymandering in New York's North Country.

by Peter Wagner, August 6, 2010

David Sommerstein on North Country Public Radio discusses the impact of New York’s new law ending prison-based gerrymandering.

Notably, Senator Aubertine explains why, although he’s not a proponent, he voted for the budget bill that included the elimination of prison-based gerrymandering. He explains that state and federal funding will not be affected. He goes on to say that 3,000 incarcerated people in his a district of 300,000 people amounts to “about 1%” and a very little impact.

Of course, the impact will be higher in the 45th Senate district which contains more prisons than any other district.

But the story singles out for “the biggest impact” two North Country counties, St. Lawrence and Jefferson, which were the only ones in the region that included the prison populations when drawing their legislative districts. All other counties in the region rejected the Census counts. St. Lawrence County used to exclude the prison populations but reversed course in a bitter partisan battle after the last Census.

In fact, one county district in St. Lawrence is 25% incarcerated. That’s a problem, says long-time reform advocate, St. Lawrence County Legislator Tedra Cobb. Leaving prisoners out of the districts is simple democracy. Districts should be based on equal numbers of community residents, and the people in the prisons are not a part of St. Lawrence County.

More press releases for New York victory

by Aleks Kajstura, August 4, 2010

The New York State Senate Majority, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice all posted their press releases celebrating the passage of a bill to end prison-based gerrymandering in New York.

• New York State Senate Majority: “Senate Passes Bill Ending Prison Gerrymandering In New York”
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund: “Legal Defense Fund Applauds Legislation Ending Prison-Based Gerrymandering in New York”
• Brennan Center for Justice: “New York Passes Landmark Legislation to End Prison-Based Gerrymandering”

Coalition Praises Lawmakers for Ending Prison Gerrymandering

New York's Coalition to End Prison-Based Gerrymandering praises lawmakers for ending prison-based gerrymandering in New York.

August 4, 2010

Coalition Praises Lawmakers for Ending Prison Gerrymandering:
Budget Action Will Bring Greater Fairness to Drawing Lines for Legislative Districts

Albany, NY — The Coalition to End Prison-Based Gerrymandering, a coalition of over 70 statewide policy, advocacy, civil rights, good government and community organizations, thanked lawmakers today for passing legislation to end the unjust and undemocratic practice of prison-based gerrymandering. If signed into law by Governor Paterson, New York will join Maryland, Delaware and 13 upstate New York counties, including Wyoming, Washington, Sullivan, Cayuga, Chemung, Clinton, and Franklin, that have already ended prison-based gerrymandering and adopted a fairer method of apportioning political power.

“For decades incarcerated individuals have been used by state politicians as pawns, giving more representation to some communities and less to others,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York, the convener of the Coalition to End Prison-based Gerrymandering. “The Senate and Assembly took courageous action today that will mean fairer representation for every New Yorker. Now it is up to Governor Paterson to sign the bill into law and end the undemocratic, unconstitutional and racist practice of prison-based gerrymandering.”

Prison-based gerrymandering is an antiquated practice by which state legislative district lines are drawn based on Census population counts that include people in prison as residents of their place of incarceration, instead of their home communities. This practice drastically inflates the political representation of some communities, and dilutes the representation of all other communities. Today, the legislature, as part of the revenue bill, fixed the broken system by requiring people in prison to be counted in their home communities for the purposes of redrawing district lines. The original legislation to end prison-based gerrymandering was sponsored by Senator Eric Schneiderman and Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries. The legislation will not affect the distribution of federal funding.

Context: New York prison-based gerrymandering bill

Eric Lotke article gives context about the history of prison-based gerrymandering and explanation for what bill passage will mean for the state.

by Aleks Kajstura, August 4, 2010

Eric Lotke just posted a great article about the New York bill that just passed, ending prison-based gerrymandering in that state. He gives a lot of context about the history of prison-based gerrymandering and explanation for what this will mean for the state.

New York to correct miscount of incarcerated people

New law caps decade-long effort to improve fairness and accuracy of data used for state and local redistricting.

August 3, 2010

New law caps decade-long effort to improve fairness and accuracy of data used for state and local redistricting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Initiative, (413) 527-0845, (413) 923-8478
Tim Rusch, Demos, 212 389-1407
Brenda Wright, Demos, 617 913-1967

August 3, 2010 – Today, the New York State Senate passed legislation ensuring that incarcerated persons will be counted as residents of their home communities when state and local legislative districts are redrawn in New York next year. The measure, already passed by the Assembly, was included in the budget package that now awaits Governor Paterson’s signature.

The state legislature and some counties and municipalities have previously counted incarcerated people as residents of the prison location, inflating the local population counts used for legislative districts. Padding legislative districts with prison populations artificially enhances the weight of a vote cast in those districts at the expense of all districts that do not contain a prison.

The bill now on Governor Paterson’s desk would use data from the department of corrections to identify the home addresses of incarcerated persons and include them in the population counts for those areas prior to redistricting. Because the bill does not change the core Census data, no federal funding based on Census data would be affected. The bill will affect state senate, state assembly, county and municipal districting in the state that will begin in 2011.

Florida County Commissioners to Face Big Decisions at Redistricting Time

Some counties in Florida adjust Census data for redistricting purposes, avoiding prison-based gerrymandering.

by Lauren Marcous, August 2, 2010

Rural counties in Florida are eagerly awaiting the release of the 2010 Census data so they can begin the process of redrawing County Commissioner districts. But when county commissioners download the data early next year, they may be in for an unfortunate surprise. 140,000 Florida residents have been counted in the wrong place.

The U.S. Census Bureau counts incarcerated people at the correctional facilities where they are locked up, rather than at their last known home address. Under U.S. common law, people are residents of the place they choose to reside with an intent to remain. As incarceration is involuntary, it should not qualify as a residence. In most states, this is an explicit statutory law. In Florida it is not; however, in other contexts, state courts have ruled that residency is not established ‘at the site of a prison solely by virtue of incarceration.’ B.C. Cook & Sons Enterprises, Inc. v. R & W. Fruit Co., 512 So.2d 980 (Fla. 1987).

The legal discrepancy between U.S. Census counts and legal residence has created a big problem for one county in Florida. During the last redistricting process in 2001, Gulf County was faced with the prospect of creating a district where 80% of the people were behind bars. Billy E. Traylor, commissioner of District 2, where the prison is located, was in favor of counting the prison population. Other members of the Board of County Commissioners felt differently, including Nathan Peters, Jr. At the time, Peters said, “they don’t pay taxes, they don’t have the right to vote, there is no reason to count them.”

Unsure of how to proceed, the Gulf County Commissioners contacted the Florida Attorney General for his opinion. Attorney General Robert A. Butterworth said that Gulf County must include the prison population when redistricting. Unwilling to draw a district that gave some people 5 times as much political influence as others, the Gulf County Commissioners decided to reject both the Attorney General’s opinion and the Census Bureau’s method of counting prison populations.

Lasting effects of prison-based gerrymandering in Maryland

WYPR reports on how the people incarcerated at the Eastern Correctional Institute in Maryland's Somerset County are used to skew the democratic process.

by Aleks Kajstura, July 22, 2010

WYPR reports on how the people incarcerated at the Eastern Correctional Institute in Maryland’s Somerset County are used to skew the democratic process in the county and in the state. Although Maryland already passed a law that will require districts to be based on actual, not prison, populations, the districts currently remain as they were drawn many years ago.

No grand plot has been plot has been alleged. But somehow a 33-hundred inmate prison was built in the middle of a five-thousand-person district that was created through a 1986 legal settlement to boost prospects for a black candidate. And it may just be a coincidence that remaining the African-American population in the district is mostly made up of UMES students, who typically don’t vote in county elections, either.

In any case, no local action been taken to correct the imbalance that has allowed the First District seat to be held for 20 years by James Ring, an elderly white man who benefited from a shrunken electorate that musters fewer than 500 total votes.

Maryland was the first state to pass a law to require incarcerated people to be counted at their actual home addresses for redistricting purposes. The WYPR story focuses on the elections that will be held before that change takes place.

Back and forth in the Buffalo News

by Aleks Kajstura, July 19, 2010

The Buffalo News recently published a brief mention of prison-based gerrymandering, and in response I wrote a letter to the editor explaining that the current efforts to end prison-based gerrymandering in New York would have no impact on federal or state aid to communities with prisons.

The News recently printed a response to my letter from a Buffalo resident, Larry McMahon. The response letter claimed that I “omit[ed] that prisons are likely to be a financial strain on the communities in which they are located.” While I agree that prisons are a strain on their local communities, the solution is for those local governments to require the state cover both direct and indirect expenses of incarceration. When a community suffers because the state is not paying for the full costs of incarceration, the answer is to seek redress in kind from the state, not stuff the ballot box.

The writer claims that “if anybody is guilty of gerrymandering in this circumstance, it’s the Prison Policy Initiative….

Citizens who live in communities that host prisons are just as entitled to fair and equal representation as anybody else. Misrepresenting their actual population —by counting the incarcerated somewhere else and thereby lowering their representation—would limit their ability to be fairly remunerated by the Legislature for the additional services the care of inmates require.”(Emphasis added.)

New York districts are currently “misrepresenting their actual population.” The New York constitution quite clearly states that “no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence… while confined in any public prison.” (New York Constitution, Article II, § 4.) Districts that contain prisons are currently getting more political clout in the legislature than their actual resident population warrants. Using incarcerated people as phantom constituents to pad these districts is “misrepresenting their actual population.”