PHARSALIA – The battle to keep the minimum security prison camps in Pharsalia and Georgetown from being closed in the sweeping state budget cuts has gained the support of some local municipalities.
The Village of Greene, among others in the area, has drafted a letter detailing the services that work crews from the camp provide and the cost spared to local taxpayers.
“In the past, the village has been fortunate enough to have inmate work crews from Camp Pharsalia provided much-needed service,” said Greene Mayor Marcia E. Miller in the statement.
Miller said the village had benefited from the prison work crews “for approximately the past 20 years.” According to Miller, crews come to the village at various points in the year to do maintenance jobs such as raking leaves, cleaning up after special events and keeping the sidewalks clear of debris.
The statement also reports that inmate work crews help at Greene’s United Methodist Church. The mayor estimated the amount of labor provided by Camp Pharsalia work crews saves village residents as much as $5,000 annually.
The New York State Department of Correctional Services estimates the closure of Pharsalia and Georgetown, along with the two other camps, will save the state $26 million in the 2009-2010 budget and $29 million more in the projected 2010-2011 fiscal year.
Camp Pharsalia, located in Chenango County, is a minimum-security facility with 84 full-time equivalent employees.
Gov. David Paterson’s proposed the closing of the four camps as part of his 2009-10 state budget. This is the second time since November that the governor has aimed to cut back at the minimum security facility, which state officials claim is below 50 percent capacity and needs to be consolidated into other facilities.
“No one should be misled into thinking things are not going to change because they’re going to have to,” said Erik Kriss, a spokesman for DCS.
Kriss said that the fiscal crisis facing the state made it inevitable for services to be reduced and that the DCS was just one agency affected by the economic downturn.
“We have fewer and fewer inmates that are eligible for work crew programs. The legislature made a conscious decision, years ago, to find alternatives to incarceration with lower level, non-violent offenders. I’m sure most municipalities would agree they don’t want violent felons on their streets and the cost of supervising them would exceed the benefit,” said Kriss.
He explained as New York’s prisons came under increasing pressure to save costs, the pool for inmates eligible for the programs would continue to shrink. He said other medium security prisons in the area may be able to supplement the loss from the Pharsalia camp, but also said they were facing cut backs, too.
“There is more demand than services and we have to prioritize,” he said.
“We’ve provided this work free of charge for a long time and we just can’t do it to the extent that we’ve been able anymore. That’s just the truth of it,” said Kriss.
The state correctional officers’ union has announced that it will fight the state’s plan to close the four prison camp.
Tom Haas, central region vice president for the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, said the union does not want the facilities to close and is skeptical of the savings the DCS is proposing.
“The numbers being produce by the Department of Correctional Services are still not the correct numbers,” he said.
Haas said the union was working with state Democratic leaders, Senate Majority Leader Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith of the 14th Senate District, and Crime and Corrections Chairwoman, New York Senator Ruth Hassell Thompson of the 36th Senate District, in hopes of coming to an agreement.
“We’ve been talking to Senator Thompson about the closures and the over crowding at the maximum and minimum security facilities, as well as front line staff cuts when none have taken place the administration level,” said Haas. He said New York’s maximum security prisons were at 125 percent capacity.
“They (DOCS) take every single cell or bed that’s available in New York State prisons and they count all those beds, but they’re not all general population beds. The numbers include disciplinary cells or units, hospital beds, clinical beds. The commission counts all these beds and then plugs in the inmate number at the facility and says ‘hey we’re not over crowded,’” said Haas.
“You can’t count the beds used for medical and discipline needs. They’re counting every available spot they can possibly put an inmate and that’s not an accurate picture of the reality,” he said.
Haas said the union’s meetings with the senators had been “positive” but much work had to be done.
Pharsalia Union Steward Paul Lashway said inmates perform roughly 78,000 hours of community service and maintenance work for state government and local organizations translating to $940,000 worth of work a year, according to Commerce Chenango statistics gathered in April, 2008.
Camps targeted for closure include Pharsalia in South Plymouth, Georgetown in Madison County, Gabriels in Franklin County and Mt. McGregor in Saratoga County. The DCS claims all the camps are estimated to be below half their prisoner capacity.
The total job losses as a result of the closures is estimated at 554 position, according to state figures.