Breaking: Prison cutting plan spares North Country
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a few minutes ago that he w ill close seven New York state prisons, none of them located in our region.
The facilities slated for mothballing are in Erie, Madison, Schoharie, Bronx, Richmond, Orange and Onedia counties.
These cuts could affect some North Country corrections officers — a lot of men and women from the North Country work downstate — but the region has dodged a huge blow.
Here’s the full announcement:
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced he will close seven New York state prisons, fulfilling his pledge to consolidate the state’s correctional facilities based on a declining inmate population and providing significant savings to New York state taxpayers.
Communities affected by the closures will be able to request economic development assistance from the state, which includes money from a $50 million fund as well as additional tax credits available to help end the reliance on prisons as a major source of employment and economic sustainability.
The state’s closure plan includes four male minimum security
facilities: Buffalo Work Release (Erie County), Camp Georgetown (Madison County), Summit Shock (Schoharie County) and Fulton Work Release (Bronx County); and three male medium security facilities:
Arthur Kill (Richmond County), Mid-Orange (Orange County) and Oneida (Oneida County).
Approximately 3,800 unneeded and unused beds will be eliminated, saving taxpayers $72 million in 2011-12 and $112 million in 2012-13.
The offenders in these facilities will be moved to other prisons that have available space with no interruption. No maximum security facilities will close under this plan.
“The state’s prison system has been too inefficient and too costly with far more capacity than what is needed to secure the state’s inmate population and ensure the public’s safety,” Governor Cuomo said. “This plan is the result of very careful and detailed analysis and deliberation. It succeeds in targeting facilities for closure without compromising public safety and will save taxpayers $184 million. We will work closely to ensure impacted areas are given substantial state aid to help them create jobs and transform their local economies. New York will continue to keep the highest standard of public safety and maintain one of the safest correctional systems in the country.”
“The plan for prison closures in New York state reflects the state’s changing and declining inmate population, while recognizing the benefit of programs that provide alternatives to incarceration and supervised re-entry into society,” DOCCS Commissioner Brian Fischer said. “By closing facilities, removing excess capacity and focusing on the core programs that will continue to rehabilitate offenders, DOCCS will provide the highest level of security to protect the public with greater efficiency and cost effectiveness.”
Since 1999, New York’s prison population has declined by 22 percent, from a high of 71,600 offenders incarcerated 12 years ago to approximately 56,000 today. The continuing downward trend of the state’s prison population is largely attributed to the simultaneous drop in crime across the state. Over the past ten years, the overall rate of crime in New York has declined by 25 percent and the number of major crimes (e.g., homicide; assault) has declined by 23 percent.
From 2001 to 2010, the number of inmates housed at maximum security prisons declined by 2 percent (from 25,331 in 2001, to 24,822 in 2010), the number of inmates at medium security prisons decreased by
19.5 percent (from 35,763 in 2001, to 28,795 in 2010) and the number at minimum security facilities dropped by 57.2 percent (from 6,301 in 2001, to 2,698 in 2010).
Since the late 1980s, the State Legislature enacted several laws that offer mostly non-violent offenders early release as an incentive for good behavior and program achievements, including the Shock Incarceration, Work Release, Comprehensive Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment (CASAT), Willard Drug Treatment Campus, Merit Time and Limited Credit Time Allowance programs.
The 1973 Rockefeller Drug Laws have been reformed three times to allow many drug offenders to apply to have their sentences reduced, to allow some to earn extra time off their fixed minimum period of indeterminate sentences for good behavior and achievement of milestones involving treatment, educational, training and work programs, and, last year, to divert more new offenders into alternatives to incarceration.
These changes have already led to the early release of many offenders, virtually all of them non-violent drug offenders, on average eight months earlier than had the laws remain unchanged, resulting in the need for fewer prison beds.
Earlier this year, Governor Cuomo achieved the merger of the former Department of Correctional Services and Division of Parole into the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). It is estimated that newly merged state agency will save state taxpayers
$17 million in the current 2011-12 fiscal year.
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OK. Lets hear it from the anti Betty Little contingent.
Also I think Andrew locked in some solid support for years to come up here, also unlike I expected of him, kept the promise he made in Ogdensburg before he was elected.
The state is doing something to finally cut spending? Am I living in the twilight zone? I mean, this is still NY, afterall.
The state made their money by cutting schools and school aid, THAT’S why they left prisons up here alone, they already cashed in by killing education.
I would like to have seen them spend more on education.
However the prison closures were the exact amount that had been planned all along, the fact is just given an across the board cut we should have lost one or two prisons. This was intentional and it is very good for the North Country.
Does this mean that since prisons up here weren’t closed, Sunmount is back on the radar?
Sunmount may be cut back sometime, but it will not close in the foreseeable future. This is because a lot of it is now a secure facility that houses men who have committed serious crimes and are considered dangerous, but because of mental disabilities, cannot be confined in a regular prison. There is no other facility for them to be placed in NYS, and any such facility would have to replicate what Sunmount already has. NOT coming to a town near you. Ever.
I think newt has a good point. I find it interesting that when the state people talk about Sunmount they never mention that. They talk about moving the people to a community setting etc, as if the population was the general MRDD population, which indeed should not be in large institutions.
The same holds for the sexually violent offender facility in Ogdensburg. I think a nuclear plant has a higher probability of getting built somewhere.