Crime Committee Report e.indd - New York State Senate

In terms of the amount of time people in prison are spending in the community where the
prison is located, according to the Department of Correctional Services, in 2008, 15 people
(or one tenth of one percent of all people admitted that year) had a sentence of life without
parole; 60% of people admitted had minimum sentences between 1 year and 3 years; and 5.6%
of people had minimum sentences of 10 years or more.
Until the Census Bureau provides the information necessary-to allocate people in prison to
their address prior to incarceration, the way to address this issue is on a statewide basis. With
this legislation, New York joins the ranks of states developing practical and effective solutions to
count people in prison at their addresses prior to incarceration for the purposes of redistricting.
It is important to note that this legislation is limited to the drawing of legislative districts, and
does not in any way revise or alter the underlying census data. Thus, the legislation has no impact
on or effect on funding formulas and allocations given to states or within states that are based on
federal census data. The Federal Census data will continue to include prison populations.
Standing Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction | 2009-2010 Report 53