Comments on: A Little common sense: Three fallacies about prisons and New York redistricting http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2007/04/18/little/ Challenging the Census Bureau's method of assigning residence to people in prison Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:21:39 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Dan Jenkins http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2007/04/18/little/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Dan Jenkins Fri, 20 Apr 2007 18:06:52 +0000 http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2007/04/18/little/#comment-5 Thank you for this report on the comments of State Senator Betty Little regarding the counting of prisoners in the redistricting population of the New York State Senate. I am one of her constituents, and I was involved in redistricting lawsuit in Franklin County a few years ago. The issues in that case did not involve counting the prison population, because, as you report, our elected county officials all agreed that would create an absurd result. Interestingly, I was supported financially in the lawsuit by the Chairman of the Republican party in Franklin County, who concurred with the Democrats here that counting prisoners makes absolutely no sense for purposes of local reapportionment. Our lawsuit challenged a county legislative districting plan that was more than 20% out of balance. We did manage to win. (Wells v. Franklin County) However, Senator Little, also a Republican, appears to support the reverse policy at the state level. I would be willing to make a direct inquiry to the office of Senator Little and ask about this apparent conceptual conflict. If you contacted me to discuss this, I could be sure that I was fully briefed before discussing this issue with Senator Little herself, or with someone on her staff. Dan Jenkins Tupper Lake, New York Thank you for this report on the comments of State Senator Betty Little regarding the counting of prisoners in the redistricting population of the New York State Senate.

I am one of her constituents, and I was involved in redistricting lawsuit in Franklin County a few years ago.

The issues in that case did not involve counting the prison population, because, as you report, our elected county officials all agreed that would create an absurd result. Interestingly, I was supported financially in the lawsuit by the Chairman of the Republican party in Franklin County, who concurred with the Democrats here that counting prisoners makes absolutely no sense for purposes of local reapportionment. Our lawsuit challenged a county legislative districting plan that was more than 20% out of balance. We did manage to win. (Wells v. Franklin County)

However, Senator Little, also a Republican, appears to support the reverse policy at the state level.

I would be willing to make a direct inquiry to the office of Senator Little and ask about this apparent conceptual conflict. If you contacted me to discuss this, I could be sure that I was fully briefed before discussing this issue with Senator Little herself, or with someone on her staff.

Dan Jenkins
Tupper Lake, New York

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