After what the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) called a “careful review” of 50 prisons across the state, it announced Monday that six prisons will be closing as of March 10, 2022.

The prisons are Ogdensburg, Moriah Shock Incarceration, Willard Drug Treatment Campus, Southport, Downstate and Rochester Correctional Facilities. 

This is not a surprise. The Legislature had approved prison closures in the state budget passed last spring, and the savings to the state will be in the neighborhood of $142 million.

But in some of the more rural communities, the prison is the largest employer for miles, and while DOCCS says no lay-offs are anticipated, Mike Powers, president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, told Capital Tonight his members have heard that promise before.

“Many of our members are going to have a disruption in their lives through these facility closures,” Powers said. “Just a year ago, they closed Watertown Correctional Facility and many of those members and employees transferred to Ogdensburg. So, they’re going to be dealing with two years of disruption for their families.”

According to DOCCS, all of the facilities that are being closed have populations below 1,000 people and some are operating at less than half capacity. That said, the Corrections Officers Union, NYSCOPBA, sent out an angry statement Monday afternoon condemning the closures, saying in part:

“The numbers tell the real story; despite closing over two dozen facilities the past 10 years, violent attacks on our members have doubled and yet nothing is being done to address it. Where is the reinvestment in the facilities to make these prisons safer working environments?”

Instead of closures, Powers and NYSCOPBA are advocating for a “stronger rehabilitation model," especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fewer people incarcerated gives these prisons an opportunity to utilize social distancing.

“Many of our members have to supervise 50 inmates to one officer. We’ve been advocating for a more dispersed inmate population, which would allow for more space to be utilized,” Powers explained.

The closures come just one week after Assembly Republican members of the Corrections Committee sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul saying that the “closures would have a significant and detrimental impact on the surrounding communities.” 

According to Powers, there is a smorgasbord of issues facing corrections officers that is leading to a crisis.

“Morale is very bad among our membership,” he said. “Violence has gone through the roof, continually, each and every year, with an ever-decreasing inmate population.”

Because of the counterintuitive notion that violence is rising while the inmate population is decreasing, NYSCOPBA has asked that a violence study be completed in New York state prisons, but legislation ordering that study has languished. 

“Much of our concerns don’t get addressed by our Legislature,” said Powers. 

Criminal justice advocates have a very different perspective.

“This is a great day in New York,” said Alexander Horwitz, executive director of New Yorkers United for Justice. “It’s a great day when we can permanently and safely close prisons because that means we are incarcerating fewer people needlessly.”

Activists have called out New York state regarding the racial dynamic in prison communities:  All of these prisons are located in predominantly white communities, and almost all of the prison guards are white, while many of the inmates are predominantly Black or Latino and from downstate. At issue is the creation of an economy that revolves around moving downstaters into upstate facilities to create jobs.  

“Not only is it untenable for Black and brown communities, of course it is because they are bearing the brunt of mass incarceration,” Horwitz said. “But it’s untenable for the communities where they exist too. You cannot build a sustainable local economy on the back of people’s suffering.”

When asked if he would support the violence study legislation discussed by NYSCOPBA’s Powers, Horwitz was not supportive.

“We need to study more about all aspects of the criminal legal system and how it works and how it doesn’t work,” he said. “We need to focus on identifying what brings people home safely and permanently and what actually makes our communities safer.”

Referring to the drubbing Democrats took at the polls on Election Day, Horwitz said that Republicans and police unions, which have dominated the news cycles, have skewed the facts when it comes to crime.

“It is the cherry-picking of terrible incidents, which has caused pain to the families of victims, pain to the families of the people involved, and then they are using that to create blanket examples. 'These are the consequences of criminal legal reform.' It is not. These are terrible individual incidents.”