ALBANY — Here’s one census debate you never expected: Who gets to claim the inmates — Queens or Coxsackie?
The battle over prison counts is already brewing as state lawmakers gear up for a once-in-a-decade chance next year to redraw the political map and steer federal aid to favored communities.
At issue is the generations-old practice of counting inmates as residents of the place they’re imprisoned. Critics have long complained the system shifts legislative power — and, thereby, money — from urban communities to the rural regions that host to most of the nation’s prisoners.
The US Census Bureau added fuel to the fire last week, when the agency announced it would, for the first time, include prison counts in data sent to states next year in advance of legislative redistricting.
The fight has been fierce in New York, where prisoners from the five boroughs — a vast majority minorities — account for half of the 58,378 inmates in upstate prisons.
Earlier this month, Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan) and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn) introduced legislation to count inmates where they lived at lockup. The move would instantly slash 29,000 from upstate’s population and give them to the city for purposes of drawing up the legislative map.
The change could have big consequences for Republicans, who counted on every redistricting advantage to protect their dwindling state Senate majority until finally losing control of the chamber last year.
Whichever party runs the Senate next year will join Assembly Democrats in drawing up legislative district lines for the next decade.