Families, communities disrupted by Pharsalia closure
PHARSALIA – Closing Camp Pharsalia isn’t just taking 105 jobs out of the area, it’s disrupting 105 families and the communities they live in, says one corrections officer at the minimum security prison.
“Nobody wants to see it closed,” said Paul Lashway, a veteran corrections officer of 18 years and the camp’s union steward. “This is our home.”
The state Department of Correctional Services announced Friday that it’s planning to shut down Camp Pharsalia, along with Camp Gabriels in Franklin County, Camp McGregor in Saratoga County, and Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County in January 2009. The move is said to free-up expenses for advanced sex offender and mental illness treatment programs mandated by the state Legislature that will cost upward of $70 million.
The officers and civilian staff at Pharsalia are assured jobs at other prisons in Cayuga and Oneida counties, state and union officials say. But Lashway said for many, the shift to another facility an hour or more away will take its biggest toll on their family lives.
“Does it disrupt the family?” Lashway said from his home Monday night. “Sure it does.”
Lashway expects he’ll have to miss a lot of his son’s football games and other events and says the move will put added pressures on his wife. He says many at the camp will likely face similar challenges.
The extra three hours of drive time each day will also significantly lessen the amount of time officers can be involved in their communities, he and union vice president Tom Haas say.
“They are the volunteer fire fighters and little league coaches. They are people involved in their communities,” said Haas, the Central Region Vice President of New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association. “Being back on the road takes these people out of their communities.”
Throughout the year the camp’s inmates do work in the surrounding state forests and parks, the New York state Veterans’ Home in Oxford, Chenango County Landfill, City of Norwich, the Department of Environmental Conservation’s flood control areas, SPCA, Rogers Environmental Center, and Catholic Charities, as well as numerous churches and fire departments. They also take on projects in Broome and Cortland counties.
“We’ll miss it,” said Norwich resident Tom Taylor, a retired pastor from the Broad Street Methodist Church who helps put on a Christmas party each year for the inmates for the work they do. “It’s been a good thing.”
Taylor hopes the decision to close the camp has been made for sound financial reasons, and not political posturing.
“I really appreciate what they do,” Taylor said. “We might take a hit because of it and we don’t want people to lose their jobs, but it may be the right thing to do. We’ll have to grow with it.”
Haas is currently checking the state’s facts behind closing Pharsalia and the others, which show a 9,000 inmate decline in the prison population and over $33.5 million in annual savings as a result. He says the union’s next move is to meet with legislators to gauge where they sit on the issue.
Citing Eliot Spitzer’s recent State of the State address, Haas says the governor has a funny way of showing he wants to revitalize upstate economies.
“You want to revitalize upstate New York, so you close four upstate prisons?” Haas said. “How does that vitalize New York?”
Haas say rather than downsize, the Department of Corrections needs to “right-size” the system – spread out crowded inmate populations into prisons, like Pharsalia, with more space.
He added that the state prison system is one of the country’s safest as it is.
“I understand the fiscal crunch,” he said. “But we don’t like it when people equate money with the security and safety of people and employees.”
Lashway said some officers, including himself, may find the commute to prisons in Cayuga and Oneida counties too expensive and find work doing something else.
“They’re upset right now,” he said. “They don’t know which way to go or where to go.”
Lashway said he can’t help feeling like Camp Pharsalia is a “pawn” in what has been an ongoing game of political jostling. To him, while closing the camp might seem like a savings, it means the loss of a community resource, an economic engine and a major account to local businesses who provide a host of services to the camp.
“It’s a hit for everyone,” he said.
“Nobody wants to see it closed,” said Paul Lashway, a veteran corrections officer of 18 years and the camp’s union steward. “This is our home.”
The state Department of Correctional Services announced Friday that it’s planning to shut down Camp Pharsalia, along with Camp Gabriels in Franklin County, Camp McGregor in Saratoga County, and Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County in January 2009. The move is said to free-up expenses for advanced sex offender and mental illness treatment programs mandated by the state Legislature that will cost upward of $70 million.
The officers and civilian staff at Pharsalia are assured jobs at other prisons in Cayuga and Oneida counties, state and union officials say. But Lashway said for many, the shift to another facility an hour or more away will take its biggest toll on their family lives.
“Does it disrupt the family?” Lashway said from his home Monday night. “Sure it does.”
Lashway expects he’ll have to miss a lot of his son’s football games and other events and says the move will put added pressures on his wife. He says many at the camp will likely face similar challenges.
The extra three hours of drive time each day will also significantly lessen the amount of time officers can be involved in their communities, he and union vice president Tom Haas say.
“They are the volunteer fire fighters and little league coaches. They are people involved in their communities,” said Haas, the Central Region Vice President of New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association. “Being back on the road takes these people out of their communities.”
Throughout the year the camp’s inmates do work in the surrounding state forests and parks, the New York state Veterans’ Home in Oxford, Chenango County Landfill, City of Norwich, the Department of Environmental Conservation’s flood control areas, SPCA, Rogers Environmental Center, and Catholic Charities, as well as numerous churches and fire departments. They also take on projects in Broome and Cortland counties.
“We’ll miss it,” said Norwich resident Tom Taylor, a retired pastor from the Broad Street Methodist Church who helps put on a Christmas party each year for the inmates for the work they do. “It’s been a good thing.”
Taylor hopes the decision to close the camp has been made for sound financial reasons, and not political posturing.
“I really appreciate what they do,” Taylor said. “We might take a hit because of it and we don’t want people to lose their jobs, but it may be the right thing to do. We’ll have to grow with it.”
Haas is currently checking the state’s facts behind closing Pharsalia and the others, which show a 9,000 inmate decline in the prison population and over $33.5 million in annual savings as a result. He says the union’s next move is to meet with legislators to gauge where they sit on the issue.
Citing Eliot Spitzer’s recent State of the State address, Haas says the governor has a funny way of showing he wants to revitalize upstate economies.
“You want to revitalize upstate New York, so you close four upstate prisons?” Haas said. “How does that vitalize New York?”
Haas say rather than downsize, the Department of Corrections needs to “right-size” the system – spread out crowded inmate populations into prisons, like Pharsalia, with more space.
He added that the state prison system is one of the country’s safest as it is.
“I understand the fiscal crunch,” he said. “But we don’t like it when people equate money with the security and safety of people and employees.”
Lashway said some officers, including himself, may find the commute to prisons in Cayuga and Oneida counties too expensive and find work doing something else.
“They’re upset right now,” he said. “They don’t know which way to go or where to go.”
Lashway said he can’t help feeling like Camp Pharsalia is a “pawn” in what has been an ongoing game of political jostling. To him, while closing the camp might seem like a savings, it means the loss of a community resource, an economic engine and a major account to local businesses who provide a host of services to the camp.
“It’s a hit for everyone,” he said.
dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.
Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far
jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.
So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that
Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks