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Albany, NY – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced the closing of seven state prisons, saying the action reflects a declining prison population and will save money. Capitol Correspondent Karen DeWitt reports...
Governor Cuomo announced several months ago that he would shrink the state's prison capacity by 3800 beds. Now, he says he'll close four minimum security prisons, including work release facilities, in Buffalo, the Bronx and Central New York, and a shock incarceration prison in Schoharie County. Three medium security prisons in the Hudson Valley and Utica area will also close.
The governor says the closures will save $184 million dollars and eliminate "unneeded and unused beds," due to a declining prison population and crime rate over the past decade. He also attributes the drop to reforms to the state's harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws.
A spokesman for the state's prison guards union says the closures represent a "significant threat to the safety and integrity" of the prison system.
The state budget office is offering $50 million dollars in economic development grants to the communities impacted by the loss in correction officer and other prison related jobs.
In Albany, I'm Karen DeWitt.