The New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, Inc. (NYSCOPBA) worries that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) recent plan to close four New York state prisons could put 675 jobs in jeopardy. The move is part of a plan to downsize the prison system and reduce spending by roughly $30 million each year.
WXXI news reports that the decision was made with little fanfare during a “slow summer Friday afternoon, five weeks after the legislative session ended.” The Department of Corrections (DOC) announced that four prisons would be shuttered by July 26, 2014, citing a “declining inmate population.”
“More than 5,400 beds sit empty. We simply do not need the level of staff we have,” writes Brian Fisher, the author of a recent report titled, “Facing Reality in Right-Sizing New York’s Prison System.”
“We must control costs, generate savings and – in the face of a projected drop of yet another 1,000 offenders in the coming year – close prisons. No private business would continue operating empty facilities. State taxpayers simply cannot afford to maintain the status quo.” The Department of Corrections currently has a $3 billion-plus annual budget.
Union members worry that the closings will jeopardize jobs, although the DOC says that the prison workers will be transferred to other positions within the system. “Obviously, myself and my members were shocked to receive the news,” said Donn Rowe, president of the union that represents prison guards.
The announcement has been welcomed by some who see the prison closures as a sign that crime is declining as New York is beginning to ease the Rockefeller Drug Laws that were among the harshest in the nation.
More than 600,000 people have been arrested for marijuana possession during the last 15 years in New York, but both Cuomo and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg have expressed support for marijuana decriminalization or reducing marijuana arrests in recent years.
Prison guards say that the new drug policies may have decreased the overall number of inmates, but a larger percentage of the remaining inmates are now the violent offenders. “Seventy percent of our inmate population are violent offenders. We have maximum security inmates in medium security facilities because we don’t have the maximum space for them,” Rowe said.
Using data from the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, The Daily Freeman reports that the New York state prison population now stands at 54,600, a 24 percent drop from December 1999 levels when 71,538 inmates populated New York prisons.
The four prisons slated for closing within a year are one minimum-security facility, Monterey Shock in Schuyler County; and three medium-security facilities, Butler in Wayne County, Chateaugay in Franklin County and Mount McGregor in Saratoga County.