98% of New York's prison cells are in disproportionately White Senate districts
The Census Bureau counts incarcerated people as if they were residents not of their homes but of the prison's location. When states like New York ignore their own constitutional requirement that incarceration does not change a residence and use Census data to draw legislative districts, the result is to transfer political power from high incarceration neighborhoods to the areas that contain the prisons. I've previously written about the regional bias implicit in the arrangement. Sixty-six percent of the New York State's prisoners come from New York City, but 91% of the state's prison cells are located in the upstate region. Even more critical is how this impacts the political power of Blacks and Latinos in the state compared to Whites. New York State is 62% White, but 82% of the state's prison population is Black or Latino. Virtually all -- 98% -- of the prison cells are located in state Senate districts that are disproportionately White for the state. If New York State wants to draw districts that accurately and fairly represent the population of the state, it needs to encourage the Census Bureau to change how it counts prisoners. [more]