Six facilities in New York's state prison system — including two maximum security lockups — are closing in four months amid a decade-long decline in state prisoners, Spectrum News reported Monday.
The March 10 closures were announced by state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision officials.
Lockups tagged for shuttering were Ogdensburg Correctional Facility, Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, Willard Drug Treatment Campus, Southport Correctional Facility, Downstate Correctional Facility, and Rochester Correctional Facility.
Southport, in Pine City, N.Y., and Downstate, in Fishkill, N.Y., are both maximum security facilities; the former has 286 inmates while Downstate has 688, Spectrum News reporter Morgan McKay tweeted.
No layoffs are anticipated, a spokesman said, and the cost-cutting through the closures is expected to save $142 million.
"DOCCS will work closely with the various bargaining units to provide staff with opportunities for priority placement via voluntary transfers, as well as priority employment at other facilities or other state agencies as a result of the formal civil service process that is followed with the closure of a correctional facility," spokesman Tom Mailey said in a statement, Spectrum News reported.
"DOCCS does not anticipate any layoffs due to these closures."
According to Spectrum News, state officials reviewed about 50 facilities for potential closure before selecting the six. All of the facilities slated for closure have populations below 1,000 people and some are operating at less than half capacity.
The closures are the latest in a line of prison facilities to be shuttered by New York in the last 10 years as the number of people in prison has steadily declined, the news outlet reported.
New York's population of incarcerated people stands at 31,469 people, the lowest number since 1984.
Gov. Kathy Hochul last month acknowledged the economic toll taken by the prison closures, especially in upstate communities. She suggested her administration was reviewing whether to convert some of the facilities into substance abuse treatment centers, the news outlet reported.
The state legislature, in the 2021 budget, authorized the governor to close additional prisons this year "as is safe and fiscally appropriate," according to DOCCS.
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Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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