Citizens Redistricting Committee

The redistricting now convulsing New York state politics exposes something obvious and unfair about the state’s prison system.

Recent legislation changed the way state prisoners are counted in the Census. Previously, they were counted in the communities where their prisons were located, but now they are being counted where they lived before being sent to prison.

So a prisoner from Brooklyn held in Great Meadow in 2010 is now being counted among the population of Brooklyn, not Washington County.

The change makes sense. Most prisoners do not move, in any real sense, to the communities that host prisons. Most inmates stay in state prisons only two or three years, and when they’re released, they rarely settle down where they were incarcerated. They go home.

Read more: http://poststar.com/news/opinion/columns/wdoolittle/change-in-inmate-counting-is-only-a-start/article_1ab79ff2-4df7-11e1-8f36-001871e3ce6c.html

A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the plan released on Thursday to redraw the state’s legislative districts would be vetoed, a move that could set up a contentious legal battle between New York’s legislative and executive branches.

The plan put out by the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment would create a Senate 63rd district near Albany, and also carve out an Asian neighborhood in New York City into a district.

Read more: http://poststar.com/news/local/cuomo-sticks-to-veto-threat-on-redistricting/article_cbba4616-4923-11e1-9b12-0019bb2963f4.html

State Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward, R-Willsboro, said Thursday she might run for state Senate next year if legislative redistricting puts her in the same Assembly district as Janet Duprey, R-Peru.

Challenging Duprey in a primary would be another possibility, she said.

“Hypothetically, if this were the case, if I’m going to have to run in a whole new district, I would hedge my bets and make a big decision on what I would be running for,” Sayward said in a telephone interview.

Sayward was responding to a Common Cause New York redistricting proposal that was released this week. The proposal places Sayward and Duprey, who live about 20 miles apart from each other, in the same Assembly District.

Read more: http://poststar.com/blogs/all_politics_is_local/sayward-redistricting-could-force-tough-choice/article_963c1604-2cef-11e1-958c-001871e3ce6c.html

The much-maligned New York State legislature gained a degree of credibility the first half of this year, passing an on-time budget and demonstrating it could forge compromises on intractable issues like ethics reform and gay marriage.

It appeared that under the leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, functional government was not only possible but doable. Yet old habits die hard, and while New Yorkers turn to vacations and relaxation, the state legislature is sowing the seeds of future dysfunction.

Read more: http://poststar.com/news/opinion/columns/coyote/guest-essay-state-s-redistricting-process-must-be-independently-run/article_def1f802-c604-11e0-bb22-001cc4c03286.html