Lawmakers, unions react to announcement of prison closures

Lawmakers and union leaders criticized Thursday’s announcement of the closure of two state prisons – including Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County.

The state on Thursday announced that Great Meadow in Fort Ann and Sullivan Correctional Facility in Sullivan County would shut down in November.

NYSCOPBA President Chris Summers said the decision comes amid record levels of violence and staffing shortages that are plaguing state facilities. Staffing levels among officers have decreased by over 1,600, while the prison population has increased by 2,000.

“For years, we have demanded that DOCCS and the State of New York take decisive action to increase staffing in our prison system,” Summers said in a statement. “The goal was always straightforward: recruit more qualified candidates and retain officers to stabilize staffing.  For the past decade we have seen round after round of prison closures that have failed to fix the long-term problem.”

Officers are walking out the door in large numbers because of dangerous working conditions and mandated overtime, he added. There is low morale throughout the prison system.

Wayne Spence, president of the Public Employees Federation, also commented on the closures. More than a hundred PEF members work at the facilities. 

“These men and women must now confront the hardships associated with transferring to a new job or possibly losing a job due to lack of seniority, as well as potentially uprooting their families, finding new schools for their kids, and a host of other stressful situations associated with sudden changes to their employment,” he said in a statement.

State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, said he is disappointed in the decision.

“DOCCS and the governor’s office love to tout declining prison population numbers. But that number continues to decline because of lax criminal justice policies and ‘reforms,’” he said in a statement.  “The state parole board continues to release murderers and other convicted violent felons back into communities and bail reform has ensured that many people who are arrested are able to evade penalty,” he said.

Stec said these communities lose good-paying jobs.

Nearby Washington Correctional Facility, a medium security facility, has only 75 available jobs for these displaced workers.

State Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay also criticized the decision.

“The intention to close Sullivan and Great Meadow further exposes New York Democrats’ commitment to undermine law enforcement any chance they get. The men and women who work in these facilities deserve far better treatment than what they’ve received from New York Democrats. The professionals at the state’s correctional facilities do an incredibly difficult job in extremely dangerous conditions. While prison closures were offered in the 2024 State Budget, specifics were not. Providing these families roughly 90-days’ notice to upend their entire lives is insulting,” he said in a statement.

Several prisons have closed in the area in the last few years. Mount McGregor Correctional Facility in Wilton closed in 2014.