EQUAL REPRESENTATION

This Thursday, April 14, Downtown for Democracy will unveil important
new legislation aimed at ending the shameful and unconstitutional
practice of using prisoners to artificially boost the populations and
the political power of Republican legislative districts. The
announcement will be made at a joint press conference with the bill's
sponsors, New York State Senate Deputy Minority Leader Eric
Schneiderman and Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat. Please join us at 12
noon on the steps of New York City Hall to show your support for bill
S2754 and Downtown for Democracy's Equal Representation campaign.

Sincerely, D4D

Equal Representation: Downtown for Democracy's campaign to end prison
districts.

"No person shall be deemed to have gained or lost residence, by reason
of his presence or absence...while confined in any public prison."

--Constitution of the State of New York

"It's legal, what more do you want?"

--Spokesperson for Republican Senator Dean Skelos, head of the senate
redistricting task force

Equal Representation

With Downtown for Democracy's support, New York State Senate Deputy
Minority Leader Eric Schneiderman has just introduced S2754, a bill to
end prison districts in New York State. The clock is now ticking. It's
time for New York's elected representatives to tell us where they
stand. Through Equal Representation, Downtown for Democracy will raise
public awareness of this crucial issue and pressure key senators to
support the bill. In the coming months, we'll target senators who
oppose reform, raising money to defeat them and bringing the Equal
Representation grassroots campaign to their home districts.

Prison Districts: A National Disgrace

Conservative rural legislative districts across the country have been
losing population for decades. In theory, this should lead to a
diminishing number of Republican seats in local, state, and federal
legislative bodies as districts that can't meet minimum population
requirements are forced to merge. However, by counting the increasing
numbers of prisoners incarcerated in rural districts as "residents" of
their prisons rather than as residents of the places they call home,
politicians have been able to artificially boost populations in those
districts, giving them more representation - and more political clout -
than they actually deserve.

By counting prisoners as "unemployed," prison districts also lower
their per capita incomes, diverting taxpayer dollars away from areas
with greater need. Because prisoners are disproportionately minorities
and prison districts are disproportionately white, this practice
exacerbates existing inequalities within our society.

Not surprisingly, politicians whose jobs depend on packed prisons are
often the strongest supporters of the mandatory minimums and harsh drug
laws that devastate urban communities and keep our prisons filled.
Ending prison districts is therefore key to the larger task of
reforming our out-of-control prison-industrial complex.

New York: The Key to Reform

Nowhere is the political dimension of counting prisoners as residents
of their prisons so clearly illustrated as in New York, where prison
districts are an important factor in maintaining Republican control of
the state senate. Nearly 30 percent of the people who were counted as
"moving" to upstate New York during the 1990's were prisoners, and New
York City loses more than 43,000 residents to upstate prisons - a
population we would regain if prisoners were counted as residents of
their home districts. There are six upstate Republican senate districts
that would fail to meet minimum population requirements without the
counting of prisoners as residents.

Prison districts contradict the legal definition of residency and the
spirit of the 14th Amendment and should therefore be banned throughout
the United States. In New York, prison districts are particularly
vulnerable to challenge because the state constitution explicitly
forbids counting prisoners as residents of their prisons in the
following clause: "no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a
residence, by reason of his presence or absence ... while confined in any
public prison."

New York is the logical place to begin a campaign against prison
districts. As Peter Wagner from the Prison Policy Initiative has
pointed out, a victory in New York could either lead to changes at the
federal level that would end prison districts altogether by changing
the way the U.S. census counts prisoners, or, failing that, could
encourage reforms in other states.

Please help us by contributing now at
http://www.downtownfordemocracy.org/contribute.html
or volunteer by
sending an email to volunteer'at'downtownfordemocracy.org

--
D4D - Downtown For Democracy
181 North 11th ST
#205
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718.290.9153
www.downtownfordemocracy.org

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please pass this on to friends who don't regularly read this blog! - Mary