Did we do enough to prepare for the prison industry’s implosion?

I’ve been prowling through NCPR’s story archives looking for prison-industry related stories and I stumbled across this headline from August 2001:

NY Prison Population Shrinks for First Year Since 1972

The Federal Bureau of Prisons says New York’s inmate population fell nearly four percent last year.

And then I stumbled across this from March 2002:

North Country Prison Industry Faces Recession

This year, New York state’s prisons cut more than six hundred corrections officers. With inmate populations shrinking, corrections commissioner Glenn Goord says another five hundred prison guards will go this year. As Brian Mann reports, the loss of high paying jobs is being felt in prison towns across the North Country.

Long before Governor George Pataki left office, the state Department of Correctional Services was making it clear that prisons were heading toward the chopping block.

Long before the Spitzer-Paterson era, Pataki embraced Rockefeller drug law reform, which was certain to drop inmate populations even further.

Inmate populations have continued to shrink rapidly, dropping by roughly 20% in the last decade.

Another big warning shot came when Camp Gabriels closed in 2009.

So here’s the question: Should state and local leaders have done more to prepare communities for the contraction of the correctional industry?

What — if anything — could have been done to begin transitioning towns like Lyon Mountain, Moria, and Ogdensburg away from prison-guard work?

Your opinions welcome.