Cuomo: Task force to determine which prisons will close
by Webmaster | Feb 1, 2011
Each community that loses a prison would get a $10M “economic transformation” grant, governor proposes
February 1, 2011 – By NATHAN BROWN, Enterprise Staff Writer
Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t say what prisons he wants to close in his executive budget, but he did say he will close prisons.
Previous governors have recommended specific prisons to close in recent executive budgets: Lyon Mountain, Camp Gabriels, Ogdensburg, Moriah Shock. Instead of doing this, Cuomo says he will create, by executive order, a task force to recommend specific facilities be closed.
Cuomo said in his budget presentation Tuesday afternoon that the task force would consist of legislative and executive representatives. He said he hoped to have closure decisions made within 30 days after the budget’s final approval. He also proposes eliminating the current 12-month notification requirement before a prison can be closed.
If the task force does not recommend “right-sizing,” Cuomo said he would empower the system’s commissioner to close specific facilities. Communities affected by closures could receive assistance from the regional economic development councils Cuomo has proposed creating, to help find a reuse for the prison or attract other business. Up to $100 million would be available for this purpose; Cuomo said there would be a $10 million “economic transformation” grant for each community that loses a prison.
“It is also right to say to the communities, ‘We understand your situation and your problem,'” Cuomo said.
The Senate and Assembly will come out with their own budget proposals over the coming couple of months, and the final budget will have to be something all three branches can agree on. The Senate is controlled by a slim majority of Republicans, many of whom hail from upstate districts where prisons are major employers. Support of prison closures has traditionally been strongest with downstate Democrats, who hold a strong majority in the Assembly.
Cuomo’s proposal includes a good deal of projected savings based on the closure of as-yet-undetermined facilities: he projects 650 fewer employees in charge of inmate supervision by March 31, 2012. He also projects $72 million in savings from “right-sizing” the prison system in 2011-12 and $112 million in 2012-13.
Funding for the combined Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the 2011-12 budget, which Cuomo would create by merging the existing Department of Correctional Services and Division of Parole, would be $2.76 billion, a $237 million drop from the funding of the two currently separate departments this year.
The public-safety section of Cuomo’s budget briefing book argues that, due to declining crime rates and consequently lower prison populations, there are at least 3,500 excess beds in the state’s medium- and minimum-security facilities. Eliminating this many beds would likely lead to several prisons closing, as the state’s medium- and minimum-securities have 36,400 beds. Overall, the state prison population has fallen by about 21 percent since its peak in 1999, from more than 70,000 to about 56,000.
The union that represents the state’s corrections officers has long disagreed with the state’s assessment that prisons are underutilized, arguing that the state’s prison system is overcrowded and that double-bunking – putting two inmates into cells designed for one – is common. Union officials also say the system is getting more violent: changed sentencing laws have led to fewer nonviolent offenders going to prison, meaning that a greater proportion of the prison population consists of violent offenders.
“On the heels of the five prison closures over the last three years and loss of roughly 2,500 beds, the closure of any additional facilities poses a clear and present danger to the public and worsens what is already an extremely serious overcrowding situation with many of our most dangerous and violent inmates,” Donn Rowe, president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said in a prepared statement. “Put simply, there is no way to shut down more prisons without putting correction officers, inmates and the public at risk.”
Union officials have called for savings by cutting administrative staff, and Cuomo’s budget does contain some of this. It projects $5 million in savings in 2011-12 by reducing central management staff by 10 percent, $6 million by merging DOCS and the Division of Parole, and $1 million by cutting the size of the parole board by six members.