Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he will close seven state prisons, camps and work release facilities to save money in a tight New York budget and because of the state's dwindling inmate population, CBS News reports.
Four minimum-security facilities for men will be closed, according to the report. They are Buffalo Work Release in Erie County, Camp Georgetown in Madison County, Summit Shock in Schoharie County and Fulton Work Release in the Bronx.
And the three medium-security prisons closing are Arthur Kill on Staten Island, Mid-Orange in Orange County and the Oneida Correctional Facility in Oneida County.
The closings will let the prison system, which currently houses about 56,000 inmates, to rid itself of about 3,800 of its 64,000 beds, The New York Times reports.
According to the governor's office, the prisons will shut down in 60 days, and after eliminating the 3,800 unused prison beds the state will save $72 million this year and $112 million next year.
According to the New York Department of Corrections, New York’s prison population has dropped by nearly 8 percent in the last three years, from 63,304 at the beginning of 2007 to 58,378 at the end of 2009. And the population has dropped by 19 percent since its peak of 71,538 on Dec. 12, 1999.
Communities affected by the closures can request economic development assistance from $50 million state fund as well as some additional tax credits, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Cuomo made it clear early on in budget talks that closing prisons would be a top priority in saving the state money, saying in his State of the State address in January that “an incarceration program is not an employment program.”
Donn Rowe, president of the New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association, was disappointed by the news, telling the Journal, "While our minimum- and medium-security prisons have seen a reduction in inmates, our maximum-security prisons, which hold the most dangerous and hardened criminals, remain at 122 percent of capacity that they were designed to hold."