Under intense pressure from advocacy groups across New York, today, members of the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) publicly agreed to adhere to the new law requiring incarcerated people to be counted as living in their home city (rather than the city that they are imprisoned in) for census data. Citizen Action was a key player in a large coalition of community groups that pushed for the passing of this legislation last year.
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: