Citizen Action staff at the On May 12 protest

Citizen Action of New York is a grassroots membership organization taking on big issues that are at the center of transforming American society. We look for opportunities to accomplish big changes – not small, incremental reforms. We work to elect progressive candidates to office who are committed to these issues.

Citizen Action is also the New York State affiliate of USAction, which brings together citizen organizations from around the country to form a strong national progressive voice.

Are you fed up with the current state of affairs in our state/country?

Have you personally experience or witnessed injustice?

Do you want to bring real change to New York?

Need a good internship opportunity to build your resume while looking for full employment?

We’re looking for an individual who’s interested in New York’s political landscape, social justice, and social media. This internship is a great opportunity to get your foot in the door in state politics and to help make a New York – and country – that works for everyone.

This internship is based out of our statewide office which is located in Albany.

Why you should intern with us

The news was made at today’s LATFOR hearing in Albany – one of a series of hearings about the redistricting process being held across the state. Our Policy Director, Bob Cohen, testified at the hearing. He noted our organizations’ content with the Task Force’s intent to comply with the law. He also made it clear that our organization is strongly in support of an independent body to draw the new district lines. After the hearing, Governor Cuomo again reiterated his threat to veto any redistricting plan that is sent to his desk for signature that doesn’t come from an independent commission.

Incarcerated people do not leave their home by choice, and upon release, they are likely to return home. While incarcerated, they do not have the right to vote, so counting them as residents of their place of incarceration is manipulative, illogical, and now, illegal. They deserve to be counted as members of their home community, not the community that exists outside of their prison walls. Furthermore, counting incarcerated people away from their homes is unfair and disenfranchising to their neighbors – who have committed no crimes but nevertheless see their electoral power dimmed by maps that count their neighbors as residents of a faraway town. This is also an issue of racial justice: many of the districts whose voting strength would be diluted if prison-based gerrymandering is revived are communities of color.

Prior to today’s hearing, members of LATFOR had been signalling that they did not intend to comply with the new law.

However, today,  Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, insisted that following the law had always been the plan. From Politics on the Hudson:

Following four hours of public testimony in Albany’s Legislative Office Building, Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Fayette, insisted that the panel charged with redrawing district lines had always planned on following a law requiring prisoners to be counted in their hometowns “to the letter.”

A group of Senate Republicans filed a lawsuit in April challenging the law, which was passed last year when Democrats were in control of the house. A ruling hasn’t been issued, but LATFOR members have asked the court to move swiftly on it.

Nozzolio, a co-chair of the redistricting panel commonly known as LATFOR, announced early in the hearing that “the law would be complied with, whatever that law is.”

We’re glad that the Task Force has decided to comply with the law. By accurately representing the populations of communities, their voting strength will be increased, and district lines will have a better chance at accurately meeting the needs and population of communities heavily affected by incarceration.

Watch Citizen Action of New York’s Policy Director Bob Cohen’s testimony at the hearing:

Justice Works: A Conference for Progressive New York – is a new event like none other in New York.

For those of you who have been to a Citizen Action annual leadership conference in the past: This event is going to be bigger and better than ever before. We will have at least double the number of attendees, nationally renowned speakers, and, most importantly, we’re opening registration and inviting dozens of other organizations to participate. This is no longer an event just for Citizen Action’s top volunteers. It’s an event designed to strengthen and unite New York’s progressive movement.

For those of you who are asking, “what’s a Citizen Action annual leadership conference?” : We’re bringing together hundreds of New York’s progressive population for an intense two-day conference complete will workshops on issues and skills and plenary discussions on big questions facing our communities, our state, and our nation. We’ll also have some top notch keynote speakers to help put it all into perspective.

Justice Works will be held at the beautiful (and unionized) Crowne Plaza Hotel in historic downtown Albany, New York, just two blocks from the Capitol. It’s easily accessible by plane, train, bus, car, and, well, being just two blocks form the Hudson River, boats too. The hotel will offer free shuttle service to and from the airport and train station. With your registration, you’ll also get free covered parking in the hotel garage. There’s a lovely swimming pool, and all the guest rooms have flat panel TVs. But, you’re not going to want to watch TV…

We’ll have workshops on organizing skills, health care, education, green jobs, the economy, the arts as part of progressive change. And there’ll be some great entertainment on Saturday evening.

Now that you know why you have to be there, here’s some details about registration:

1. Early registration is from now until April 1st. We strongly encourage you to take advantage of the cheapest rate by registering today!
2. Scholarships are available. Applications for scholarships are due on March 18th. Get yours in today.
3. Sponsorship is available. If you’re from an organization, and want some good promotion at the progressive meet up of the year, become a sponsor of Justice Works. Details are here.

Once you’re registered, be sure to let your friends know about Justice Works. And be sure to “like” the Justice Works Facebook page to stay up to date on the conference agenda, speaker announcement, and other details.

When Governor Paterson signs the bill, New York will join Maryland and Delaware as the only states to reallocate people in prison back to their home communities for the purpose of drawing legislative district lines.

For too long prison-based gerrymandering not only left incarcerated people in New York State to be used as a means to hog undue partisan power, but also left too many New York communities with a diluted share of representation in their government – a direct violation of the democratic principle of ‘one person, one vote.’ Today, democracy was restored to New York.

Through sponsoring this legislation, Senator Eric Schneiderman and Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries have proven themselves as true progressive champions who have an unfettered commitment to the best interests of all New Yorkers. And, we look forward to working to ensure that Eric Schneiderman is New York’s next Attorney General.

Each and every email sent, phone call dialed, legislative visit made, and donation you gave made an impact on today’s remarkable success. Along with representatives and members from the broad coalition of over 70 statewide organizations that made up the Coalition to End Prison-Based Gerrymandering in New York, your support and presence is what kept this legislation on the minds of each and every legislator in New York State.

When New York State draws new district lines in 2012, you will know that those lines will be drawn more accurately than ever before – that all communities in New York will get the representation they deserve.

When those who say that the voices of Every Street have no power, and that the likes of Wall Street have completely corrupted our political way of life, tell them about this victory. Tell them about this victory and the rally of New Yorkers behind it who organized themselves into an effective voice and ensured ‘one person, one vote’ be restored in New York.

Our government belongs to each of us equally. Now, in delegating legislative representation, we’ve ensured that each and every vote will have its equal force.

Thanks for all you continue to do,

Karen Scharff
Executive Director
Citizen Action of New York

On Wednesday, June 2nd, we’re converging on the Capitol to tell our legislations to end prison-based gerrymandering now! Join coalition organizations, community members, and New Yorkers who want their democracy back in the Well of the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday, June 2nd from 11 am to 4 pm.

Shanna Goldman, our Organizing Director, and Chris Scoville, our Capital District Organizer, opened the conference with a dynamic discussion on far reach of economic concerns. Leaders then chose among 3 workshops that were divided into 2 days. Jess Wisneski, our Legislative Director, and Cynthia Ward, Northeast Action Executive Director, moderated the health care workshop. Cleo Oliver, Citizen Action Campaign Coordinator, and Carin Schiewe, Northeast Action Field Director, moderated the civic engagement workshop. Karen Scharff, our Executive Director, managed the education workshop.

Citizen Action staff loved the level of engagement–especially since we all put so many hours into organizing the conference.

The engagement, though, reached into the Internet this year. We live-streamed portions of the conference and actively used Twitter and Facebook. Leaders especially loved the Twitter projection. Be sure to click on the link to see what the buzz was all about.

We ended the conference on a riveting and uplifting note. William McNary, President of USAction – our national affliate-, brought everyone to their feet and some even to tears. Luckily, in yet another example of technological versatility, Charlie Albanetti, our Communications Director, captured this provocative engagement on video.

Here is a collection of photos that highlight our very active weekend:

We’re also embedding the informational binder that each attendee received. The pages highlight our major projects and is chock full of useful summaries. Please take a look!

2010 Leadership Conference Binder Docs

My first problem: the term “upstate.” Can you please tell me which of these communities best represents upstate?

Is it Elsmere Street in Buffalo, a hip strip of shops and restaurants and single and double family homes?

Is it the small Adirondack town of Lake Placid where the hot spot is the local bait and tackle shop?

Is it the Southwest Syracuse, a community of low-income neighborhoods where many community clinics and centers are stretched thin trying to serve an underserved population?

Is it rural Cazenovia, population 6,481.

The correct answer is obviously ‘E ‘ – all of the above represent upstate. The reality is, “upstate” is as diverse as its geography, its people and, therefore, its policy needs. There are times when New York City has more in common with Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and even Albany, while Pittsford (Monroe County) shares some of the assets of Larchmont (Westchester County) and Northport (Nassau County).

In fact, depending on where you live, upstate means different things. I grew up in Orange County. My dad commuted every day to New York City where he worked as a water inspector. In fact, my parents, my older brother and sister were all born in New York City and we regularly visited my grandparents who lived there until they passed away. So for the first 18 years of life, I considered myself a “downstater.” However, my boyfriend in college, from Long Island, informed me that everything north of Manhattan was upstate, but maybe, just maybe, he might include the Bronx.

So let’s go back to this question of how the bill to end prison-based gerrymandering impacts upstate.

Well, for folks in the cities, where unfortunately, we have the highest rate of sentencing and are therefore the largest contributors to the prison population, folks will have the right to be represented back in their home communities, whether we are talking about the North Side of Rochester or Salina Street in Syracuse. This would definitely help these communities be more accurately represented.

For folks who live in the counties with prisons, they also would benefit from accurate representation. At this point, these counties find themselves out of whack. If a county consists of 7 or 8 towns, the one holding the prison suddenly has unrealistically inflated numbers and therefore disproportionately high representation, which is why many – in fact 13 counties with prisons – have stopped the practice of counting the prison population for purposes of county-level redistricting.

But do any of these arguments really matter?

Do we remember the 3/5ths compromise to count slaves, who could not vote, but counted as 3/5ths of a person to beef up the numbers in communities who would consistently vote to maintain slavery?

The practice of counting prisoners in their place of incarceration is an antiquated process when we lacked the computers and databases to track people otherwise. But now, it’s turned into an unjust process which ends up commodifying human beings for the benefit or profit of others.

It is no secret that while equal numbers of black and brown people are arrested as whites, the majority of people actually in the prisons are black and brown. The impact of counting prisoners any place other than their home communities results in an unintentional oppression of some people to the benefit of others.

I know that no New Yorker, upstate, downstate, whether they live in the country or the suburbs or the city, would condone that. Nor would they ask their elected representative to do so.

And that is what really is at stake: the soul of an entire state – our state. Because, if we maintain this practice, we are all guilty.

Last Thursday (January 28th), we kicked-off a new campaign to end prison-based gerrymandering, the undemocratic system for using people in prison to inflate population counts.

At the campaign kick-off, Rev. Al Sharpton said that this is “the voter rights and civil rights issue of the year in the state of New York.”

Here’s the problem: right now, the US Census Bureau counts people in prison as being residents of the area in which they are incarcerated.

While New York’s constitution (Article II §4) states that incarceration will not change a person’s residence, the State still uses the Census numbers for the purposes of drawing legislative district lines, effectively denying fair representation to the communities where most people in prison come from: specifically urban areas and communities of color.

That’s why we’re working with a coalition of organizations from across the State of New York to pass legislation to end this practice. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Eric Schneiderman in the Senate and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries in the Assembly, will use Department of Correctional Services data to amend the Census population counts used for redistricting. Because the legislation doesn’t change how the Census actually counts people, and instead changes how the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment uses Census data to draw district lines, this won’t affect any state or federal funding for any community that is tied to Census data. It will, however, correct the decades old injustice of giving certain communities more representative power at the expense of others.

13 upstate counties that have large prison populations have already rejected the Census counts when it comes to county-level redistricting. Essex County didn’t use the Census counts when they drew districts for their Board of Supervisors. They gave this explanation:

“Persons incarcerated in state and federal correctional institutions live in a separate environment, do not participate in the life of Essex County and do not affect the social and economic character of the towns… The inclusion of these federal and state correctional facility inmates unfairly dilutes the votes or voting weight of persons residing in other towns within Essex County…”

On Monday (February 1st), we held a press conference in the Capitol in Albany to announce new support for the bill from upstate legislations Senators Antoine Thompson and Neil Breslin and Assemblyman Jack McEneny.

With the 2010 Census already underway, and New York’s redistricting process just around the corner in 2012, now is our chance to finally end the distorted system of representation in New York and restore the fundamental principle of ‘one person, one vote.’