2 state prisons to close, but not in Albion or GLOW region

State officials announced last week that two prisons will be closing. The Great Meadow Correctional facility in Washington County and Sullivan Correctional Facility in Sullivan County are both maximum-security prisons.

They will close on Nov. 6 and about 1,000 inmates at the two sites will be transferred to the other 13 maximum-security prisons in New York, the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said.

The announcement spares the two prisons in Albion – a medium-security prison (Orleans Correctional) and a women’s prison (Albion Correctional).

State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt said Republicans in the State Senat oppose the two prison closures, and are critical of the state for giving just over 90 days notice to the communities and employees where the prisons are located.

“Prison closures have a ripple effect — they have a negative economic impact on their host communities, a negative impact on staff who must be moved around, and can lead to overcrowding that will further endanger the brave men and women who work in the prisons,” Ortt said.

Gov. Hochul and state legislators during the budget passed in May said up to five prisons could be closed this year. That is in response to a declining population of people incarcerated.

The state also closed six prisons in 2022. The inmate population has dropped from a peak of 72,649 in 1999 to 32,465, according to The Journal News of the Lower Hudson Valley.

The union for corrections officers, New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, issued this statement:

“We express frustration and continued disappointment that the State believes closing prisons will remedy significant staffing deficits and reduce historic levels of violence and that it waited a year to make their announcement further subjecting our members and their families with additional hardships,” stated union President Chris Summers.

“In the past year, staffing levels amongst officers and sergeants has decreased by over 1,600, while the prison population has increased by over 2,000 inmates.  It is a formula that has led to increased attacks on staff and created unsafe working conditions.

“For years, we have demanded that DOCCS and the State of New York take decisive action to increase staffing in our prison system. The goal was always straightforward: recruit more qualified candidates and retain officers to stabilize staffing. For the past decade we have seen round after round of prison closures that have failed to fix the long-term problem,” Summers continued.

“Our members work tirelessly to provide an increasingly program-focused prison environment for incarcerated individuals as a result of the disastrous HALT Act. Additional programs require more staff, but recruitment of new officers has lagged significantly and officers eligible to retire are walking out the door in droves as a result of dangerous working conditions and mandated overtime. As a result of staffing shortages and mandatory overtime, members spend more time working in the prison then they do with their families and their quality of life suffers as a result.

“Redistributing staff through prison closures will accomplish the same thing it has always accomplished: a short-term staffing boost to a handful of facilities with little to no long-term relief. Furthermore, the State waited too long to make this announcement  at a time during the middle of summer when staffing relief is needed most.

“The State of New York needs to take bold and creative action to fix the staffing issue that is creating low morale and pushing members to their limits. Closing prisons and expecting different results certainly is not bold and creative, it is shortsighted.

“NYSCOPBA will insure that proper reduction in force protocols are followed and assist members in getting the needed information to potentially make life-changing decisions for members of those two facilities. This is a lengthy process, but it happens quickly, and our members have lives and families that come before the job.

“Their lives are now further complicated by this late announcement because they will have to consider moving closer to their new prison, which requires uprooting their families on the eve of a new school year in September. It would serve the State of New York well to remember that our members have families, and they pay the price for these poor decisions.”