{"id":3320,"date":"2011-08-15T14:44:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T18:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/?p=3320"},"modified":"2021-12-15T22:10:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T03:10:55","slug":"ny-news-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/2011\/08\/15\/ny-news-roundup\/","title":{"rendered":"News Roundup: LATFOR won&#8217;t engage in prison-based gerrymandering and Civil Rights organizations will defend NY law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The month of August has brought some exciting victories for the movement to <a href=\"\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/newyork.html\">keep prison-based gerrymandering out of New York<\/a>. To summarize our recent progress, here&#8217;s a roundup of selected news coverage:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Advance #1<\/strong>: After <a href=\"http:\/\/dev.northcountrypublicradio.org\/news\/story\/17973\/20110707\/new-districts-won-t-change-prisoner-count-task-force-says\">expressing reluctance<\/a>  to comply with  <a href=\"\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/NYS_A9710-D.html\">New York&#8217;s 2010 law<\/a> that ended prison-based gerrymandering, the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR) definitively announced on August 4th that it will <a href=\"\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/2011\/08\/04\/latfor-will-comply\/\">fully comply<\/a> with the law by adjusting Census Bureau population data to count incarcerated individuals at their home addresses.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>The Albany <i>Times Union<\/i>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/local\/article\/Panel-bows-to-count-of-state-prison-inmates-at-1729739.php\">coverage<\/a> reported that, &#8220;One cloud has been lifted from the state&#8217;s legislative redistricting process,&#8221; explaining how LATFOR&#8217;s announcement followed pressure from civil rights advocates and legislators to count incarcerated populations in the right place.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>A <i>Capitol Confidential<\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.timesunion.com\/capitol\/archives\/76987\/read-our-lips-latfor-will-count-prisoners-at-home\/\">article<\/a> quotes LATFOR co-chair Sen. Mike Nozzolio as saying that, &#8220;This is a bi-partisan position that the law will be complied with.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The Albany <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.timesunion.com\/opinion\/the-right-way-for-redistricting\/13736\/\"><i>Times Union<\/i><\/a> and the Canandaigua <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gateschilipost.com\/opinion\/x919519194\/Editorial-Follow-through-on-that-veto-promise-governor\"><i>Messenger Post<\/i><\/a>  have both run editorials praising LATFOR&#8217;s statement that it intends to follow the law. The <i>Times Union<\/i> declared, <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>LATFOR has done the right thing and agreed to stop the travesty of counting prisons inmates in the districts where they\u2019re incarcerated, rather than where they otherwise would live.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>A  <a href=\"\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/news\/Gannett_8_4_11.pdf\">Gannett story<\/a> reported that those glad to hear LATFOR&#8217;s announcement included civil rights advocates, legislators, and even Governor Cuomo himself: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that he didn&#8217;t &#8220;think it was right or fair&#8221; to count prisoners where they are incarcerated and said he stands behind the law, which was signed before he took office.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li>WYNC&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/empire.wnyc.org\/2011\/08\/prisoner-count-fight-just-the-beginning-of-redistricting-war\/\"><i>The Empire<\/i> <\/a>and  the  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/2011\/08\/15\/ny-news-roundup\/\"><i>Legislative Gazette<\/i><\/a> published detailed reports on LATFOR&#8217;s announcement. The <i>Gotham Gazette<\/i>&#8216;s recent coverage provides a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gothamgazette.com\/article\/Albany\/20110810\/204\/3581\"> helpful overview<\/a> of New York&#8217;s redistricting process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Advance #2:<\/strong> On August 4th, New York Supreme Court Judge Eugene Divine granted fifteen urban and rural voters from across New York State  <a href=\"\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/2011\/08\/11\/permission-to-intervene\/\">permission to intervene<\/a> in <a href=\"\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/little\/\"><i>Little v. LATFOR<\/i><\/a>, a lawsuit challenging the New York&#8217;s law that ended  prison-based gerrymandering. The Prison Policy Initiative, along with six other top civil rights organizations, will represent the fifteen voters in court.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>The Albany <i>Times Union<\/i>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/local\/article\/Inmate-counting-law-wins-a-round-1891251.php\">article<\/a> explains that the judge admitted the voters into the lawsuit because they have a &#8220;genuine stake&#8221; in protecting their voting interests.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><i>Thomson Reuters<\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com\/New_York\/News\/2011\/08_-_August\/Individuals_can_join_lawsuit_to_defend_prison_redistricting_law\/\"> reported<\/a>:<br \/>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, one of the groups representing the intervenors, welcomed the decision to allow the individuals to intervene.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We want to make sure that this law is adequately defended by people who have a stake in the matter and care to ensure that New Yorkers&#8217; voting rights aren&#8217;t unfairly distorted,&#8221; said Wendy Weiser, a lawyer with the center.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Stay tuned for more New York updates as both LATFOR&#8217;s redistricting process and the <i>Little v. LATFOR<\/i> lawsuit proceed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roundup of selected news coverage: LATFOR will avoid prison-based gerrymandering and civil rights orgs will defend NY law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-3320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9934,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions\/9934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3320"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonersofthecensus.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}