Issue Position: Counting Inmates in Upstate Prisons as New York City Residents

Issue Position

Another Grab to Give More Power to the City and Dilute Upstate's Influence

The Senate Democrats tucked this measure into the 2010 Budget like they did in 2009 when they hid measures to allow inmates to get out of prison early and offenders to avoid being arrested for parole violations and other crimes.

On Thursday, January 28, 2010, Senator Eric Schneiderman, with Rev. Al Sharpton at his side, held a press conference in Manhattan to announce a plan that would change the long-standing practice of how inmates are counted for Census purposes (S.6725-A, Schneiderman, Adams, Breslin, Dilan, Duane, Espada, Hassell-Thompson, Huntley, Klein, Krueger, Montgomery, Onorato, Oppenheimer, Parker, Peralta, Perkins, Savino, Serrano, Squadron, Stavisky, Stewart-Cousins, Thompson).

The current method of counting inmates where they live has remained unchanged in this country since 1790. The data collected by the census help determine the number of seats a state has in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as the boundaries of state legislative districts.

The move by New York City Senate Democrats to count inmates living in Upstate New York as New York City residents is clearly to be able to diminish the political representation of Upstate and divert more resources to New York City. This move will cost millions of dollars for prison officials to attempt to verify the census block where each inmate originated.

Senator Schneiderman maintains that incarcerated persons should not be counted as residents of the communities where the prisons are located, but rather of their "pre-prison" residences.

According to Schneiderman, "The present rule takes people who come from and return to poor or black and Latino communities and transfers their value for reapportionment purposes to rural upstate districts that really have nothing to do with them."

Although many State and local officials talk about the positive economic impact prisons have on their communities, the relationship is a two-way street. While jobs may be created to serve the prison population and local vendors enjoy some increased business, inmates utilize local government resources more than most people know including:

Health care costs associated with inmates;

Prisons' use of natural resources;

Increased local criminal justice budgets; and

Costs imposed by the families of inmates (e.g. social services, schools)

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