ALBANY -- Capital Region prisons are spared in a state corrections plan to shed 3,800 beds by closing seven minimum and maximum security prisons, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.
Shielded from the plan are two medium security prisons in the area: the Washington facility in Comstock and the Mt. McGregor facility in Wilton. The minimum security Camp McGregor closed in 2009.
The Summit Shock program at Schoharie County is the nearest facility to the Capital Region set to close.
Officials at the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said inmate population at medium and minimum security prisons has declined 19.5 percent and 57.2 percent between 2001 and 2010, after reforms of Rockefeller-era drug laws.
No maximum security facilities will close because their inmate populations are increasing. The Corrections Officers Patrolmens Benevolent Association says the move is forcing double-bunking.
The new closures will save $72 million in the current fiscal year and $112 million in the 2012-13 fiscal year.
"The state's prison system has been too inefficient and too costly with far more capacity than what is needed to secure the state's inmate population and ensure the public's safety," Cuomo said. "This plan is the result of very careful and detailed analysis and deliberation."
Correction officers union President Donn Rowe said the closure announcement "represents a significant threat to the integrity and safety of the New York state prison system."
The governor's budget booked the savings without naming the prisons, usually a controversial budget item for upstate lawmakers, including Republicans who control the Senate.
Closures cut along New York's regional and racial lines: they are seen as engines of economic development in mostly white, rural, upstate, Republican areas and are reviled for incarcerating predominately black, urban, inmates.
Cuomo won praise from some minority lawmakers by declaring in his State of the State address, "Don't put other people in prison to give some people jobs."
The governor then proposed a panel to advise him in the closures, but in the final budget assured concerned lawmakers that he would consider their input and strive for "regional balance" in the closures.
Two of the facilities slated for closure are in New York City.
Affected communities may apply for money from a $50 million pool of economic development funding to ease the transition from the loss of prison jobs, a news release said.
The closures will take effect 60 days after official notice is given. It's unclear when that will be.
Reach Vielkind at 454-5081 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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