Shame on prison-protecting pols

Submitted by visitor on January 21, 2008 - 9:33pm.

Shame on prison-protecting pols
NY Daily News Opinion: Errol Louis
Sunday, January 20th 2008

With startling clarity, an attempt by Gov. Spitzer to close unneeded prisons
has laid bare the workings of New York's prison industrial complex and the
fact that some people - and even whole communities - have a perverse
financial stake in keeping penal institutions open and filled.

Where many of us see prisons as places of sadness and misery - and yes,
justice - a handful of special interest groups and upstate politicians see
them as a source of jobs and the extra political clout that comes from
adding thousands of "residents" to an otherwise sparsely populated area.

Spitzer and his Correctional Services commissioner, Brian Fischer, are
trying to save state money - an estimated $44 million over the next two
years, plus another $30 million in construction and repair costs - by
shutting down four medium- and minimum-security prisons.

The prisons aren't needed - many are half-empty - because New York's inmate
count has dropped by 13% over the last eight years, from 71,600 in 1999 to
less than 62,500 today.

That should be good news - a sign, perhaps, that years of investing billions
of tax dollars in fighting crime, social programs and education have finally
paid off, and some of that money can be spent on other critical needs.

But not everyone sees it that way.

On Thursday, a rally at Harrietstown Town Hall in Saranac Lake has been
planned to demand that Spitzer come up with funding to stop the closing of
Camp Gabriels, a minimum-security facility that Fischer says is half empty
with 187 inmates.

"We hope to send a message to the governor and get the money put back in the
budget," said Chris Hansen, whose title is "northern region business agent"
for the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent
Association, which represents prison guards.

Jeff Leavitt, a member of the Brighton Town Council, told
PressRepublican.com, a local news organization, that a study showed prison
work crews put in 104,525 hours worth of "community service" cleaning and
repairing upstate roads. That spared Brighton and other towns roughly
$855,204 worth of minimum wages, according to Leavitt - roughly twice the
$478,000 Brighton spends on its general and highway funds.

"And that's just labor," Leavitt said. "A lot of these jobs won't get done,
because the towns can't afford to do it."

In another local perk, the prison's 187 inmates, counted as area residents,
allow Brighton to get extra emergency-service money from state and federal
sources. They also count for the purposes of drawing state and federal
district lines. No, 187 people alone may not sound like that many people -
but the numbers add up, so the prison is politically valuable.

This madness must end.

I'm terribly sad that Brighton might have to clean its own roads instead of
having prisoners do the work for them.

I understand why upstate pols might enjoy the luxury of having a
state-funded captive population of people who bring extra emergency funds
but can't vote on how a nickel of it gets spent.

And I get why a prison union's business agent would fight to keep what
amounts to make-work jobs at a mostly empty facility.

But none of that is a reason to keep a prison open.

This game has been going on for years. "We've got a little history on our
side," Hansen told the Adirondack Enterprise newspaper. "We have
successfully staved off the closing of correctional facilities in other
areas of the state."

Enough. Downstate advocates of prison reentry - a policy of redirecting
public resources to schools, housing, jobs and recreation programs instead
of prison - need to get fired up and jump into this debate.

Above all, Spitzer and Fischer need to hold firm and make clear that the
last thing upstate's ailing economy needs is a fiscally and morally bankrupt
policy of keeping prisons open when they aren't needed.

elouis@nydailynews.com
NY Daily News
This news was identified by Real Cost of Prisons Project

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