Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Washington County, is seen in this March 25, 2010, file photo.
New York's prison population dropped by roughly half since 2008 and is projected to continue falling. Against that backdrop, closing prisons makes fiscal and common sense.
So it was welcome news that lawmakers, as part of the newly approved state budget, are going ahead with a plan to close up to five prisons this year. The move will save the state millions of dollars.
But lawmakers and others who object to the plan raise a compelling point when they say the state's three-month notification requirement does not provide communities with the time needed to prepare for the coming economic blow. Some lawmakers and prison employees have pushed for a six-month notification requirement that seems more than reasonable.
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New York's prison population exploded after the state enacted the so-called Rockefeller drug laws in the 1970s. That led to a boom in prison construction, with the facilities typically sited in rural upstate communities struggling with the decline of industry or economies based around natural resources. The prisons were viewed as economic development, a way to put thousands of rural residents back to work.
In that respect, the plan worked as prisons became a mainstay of the upstate economy — but a morally dubious and unsustainable one. The Rockefeller drug laws, after all, were an egregious blunder, as New York belatedly came to realize. Many thousands of lives were ruined unnecessarily. Many New Yorkers who didn't belong in prisons were jailed nevertheless.
The injustice needed to end. But that doesn't mean, of course, that closing prisons is painless. And since the state pushed prisons as economic development, it must help communities now that it is taking that economic lifeline away.
Three months isn't enough time to do the job, not when a prison is likely the largest employer in town, the best source of high-paying work and a vital contributor to the tax base.
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Gov. Kathy Hochul has suggested that some shuttered prisons be converted to housing, a notion that's almost comical. For one, housing conversions don't provide the long-term employment needed in communities facing the loss of a major employer. Meanwhile, housing is not especially in demand in most struggling upstate towns, particularly when many employees of the shuttered prison will be transferring away.
Communities such as Fort Ann — home to Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County, which is among those likely to be on the chopping block — need better solutions than that. They need real plans developed with thought and attention to detail. They need more than three months to prepare for shutdowns that will transform communities and the lives of residents.
Again: Closing prisons is the right move, but there can be a wrong way to take the right steps. Rushing to close these facilities without adequate notification and planning pulls the rug out from under communities that need state government to be a responsible and concerned partner. There's a better way.
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Editorial: Don't rush prison closures
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24.04.2024
Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Washington County, is seen in this March 25, 2010, file photo.
New York's prison population dropped by roughly half since 2008 and is projected to continue falling. Against that backdrop, closing prisons makes fiscal and common sense.
So it was welcome news that lawmakers, as part of the newly approved state budget, are going ahead with a plan to close up to five prisons this year. The move will save the state millions of dollars.
But lawmakers and others who object to the plan raise a compelling point when they say the state's three-month notification requirement does not provide communities with the time needed to prepare for the coming economic blow. Some lawmakers and prison employees have pushed for a six-month notification........
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