The New York Times editorial page weighed in yesterday on a suit to block a law that ends New York's practice of counting prison inmates at their prison-homes when it comes to drawing electoral districts. The Times calls it prison gerrymandering:

…the cynical practice of counting prison inmates as “residents” to pad the population of legislative districts.

It's "all about self interest," says the Times. Principle beneficiary and lead plaintiff  is state Sen. Betty Little of Queensbury:

…whose upstate district contains 11 state correctional institutions, one federal prison and an estimated 12,000 inmates. According to an analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative, a research group based in Massachusetts, Senator Little’s current district is one of seven in New York that meet federal population requirements by counting inmates as residents.

Read the full editorial here.

Last week, David Sommerstein reported that Republican lawmakers — including state Sen. Betty Little – are suing to make sure prison inmates are counted where they are incarcerated, not where they're from.

The dust-up was also raw material for Marquil's latest political cartoon.  Now the Utica Observer Dispatch has an article illustrating just how significant this debate might be.

They point to the district of Oneida County legislator David Wood, where roughly one-third of his "constituents" are behind bars.

Views on this differ wildly.  Here's what Sen. Joe Griffo, a Republican who took part in the lawsuit, told the newspaper:

“It’s not like [inmates] come here, and everything is self contained,” he said. “There’s a draw on resources and a cost to them being here.”

But Republican county legislator Edward Welsh, from Utica, sees it differently:

“Basically, I’m against gerrymandering prison populations for political use only,” he said. “I’m happy the prisoners are here and the jobs are here, but when everything is equal, prisoners should not be counted here.”

This lawsuit could significantly reshape state, county and perhaps even Federal political districts across the North Country.

So what do you think?  Tens of thousands of New York inmates — who can't vote and don't have any kind of regular access to "their" elected officials — are clearly pawns in a big political struggle.

Should they be?  Should they be tallied here or in the communities where they hail from?

It matters a lot how and where you count prison inmates in New York state.

With tens of thousands of prisoners behind bars, the accounting could affect redistricting and political power — especially in a year when lawmakers are already wrestling with the results of last year's Census.

This from the Watertown Daily Times.

Senate Republicans are mulling a federal lawsuit to challenge counting prisoners as residents at their previous known address — often New York City — instead of the facility where they're locked up — often upstate.

Most Democrats support counting inmates by their home residences — a policy that would benefit and boost political power in districts in New York City and Long Island.

But North Country lawmakers, even Democrats, see this very differently.

Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, a Theresa Democrat, also opposes counting inmates from their last known address.

"Prisons are a cost to the local community," she said. "Prisoners go back and forth on our roads, they use our local healthcare system, they use the services in the area. If they want to be counted at home, they shouldn't have done something to be incarcerated."

So what do you think?  Are the non-voting inmates living in the North Country part of our political culture?  Is this a power-grab by Republicans?

Or is counting prisoners at the location of their correctional facility a fair, common sense way to do things?