(AP) -- New York lawmakers have announced a campaign aimed at changing how the state's prisoners are counted when drawing state and local legislative districts.
State Sen. Eric T. Schneiderman and Assemblman Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday they are supporting a statewide effort to push passage of legislation requiring prisoners be counted as living in their home communities, not at prisons.
At stake is how communities are represented politically at the state and local levels. Currently, New York uses numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau to draw districts. The Census counts prisoners where they are incarcerated.
Critics say that method distorts political representation in urban communities where most convicted felons are from. There are nearly 60,000 inmates in 67 state prisons. The majority were convicted of crimes in New York City.
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