Below is the Correctional Association’s response to yesterday’s announcement:

The Correctional Association of New York Applauds New York State’s Plan to Close Seven Prisons Eliminating 3,800 Prison Beds and Saving Millions of Taxpayer Dollars, and Urges Further Downsizing

The Correctional Association of New York applauds Governor Cuomo for his announcement yesterday to close seven prisons, the most significant commitment to prison reduction since the prison building boom of the 1980s. The plan includes four minimum-security facilities for men: Buffalo Work Release; Camp Georgetown; Summit Shock; and Fulton Work Release, in addition to three medium-security facilities for men: Arthur Kill; Mid-Orange; and Oneida.

Closing prisons is long overdue: New York’s prison population has dropped by over 15,500 people in the past decade and the state system has nearly 8,000 empty beds maintained at enormous cost. These closures will eliminate 3,800 empty prison beds and save taxpayers $72 million in 2011-12 and $112 million in 2012-13.

While we commend the Governor for his commitment to eliminating excess prison beds, we are concerned that approximately 50% of these beds are located in or near New York City, even though New York City prisons only house 25% of the total state prison population. Therefore, the closures affect downstate prisons at a rate three times greater than prisons upstate. Read more…

Now that the New York State legislative session has ended, Governor Cuomo says that he will announce which prisons will be closed in “literally a week or so.” Click here for a story from YNN’s Brian Dwyer on how some North Country representatives are responding to news that the 3,700 empty prison beds slated for closure finally will be revealed.

Governor Cuomo also announced yesterday that a packaging and paper products company will build a new facility in Niagara County with support from the Empire State Development (ESD) and the New York Power Authority, creating 108 new jobs. It is encouraging to see that private companies and New York State officials are working together to invest in attracting businesses and creating jobs in Western New York. These partnerships prove that there is more to economic development in upstate communities than continuing to fund underutilized corrections facilities. Click here to read the official press statement, or click here for the story from the Niagara Gazette.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 29th, the Bronx Defenders are hosting their annual Community Block Party on 160th Street, between Courtlandt and Melrose Avenues in the Bronx, from 12pm to 5pm. Drop the Rock is one of many community groups and service organizations that will have an information table at the venue. We hope you can stop by to enjoy free food, music, and entertainment and connect with your community! Download a flyer for the event here.

Don’t forget that you can connect with Drop the Rock on Facebook and Twitter and share your responses to these news stories and more. We look forward to seeing you at our next general coalition meeting on Thursday, July 14 at 6pm.

With Advocacy Day just two weeks away, there is one question to answer:

Are you registered yet?

Now you can register online! You can also find out more about registration at our Advocacy Day page.

Join us in Albany on Tuesday, March 22 as we unite to urge legislators to support Gov. Cuomo’s initiatives to close prisons and to enact further population reduction measures that will save the state even more critically needed tax dollars. New Yorkers will gather to tell policymakers to put people before prisons, and we hope that you will be there with us.

For those who are unable to attend but wish to help with our efforts, please consider making a donation to help defray transportation costs or sponsoring an advocate.

Contact Drop the Rock at droptherock@correctionalassociation.org or at  212 -254 – 5700 x 330 for more information about Advocacy Day.

We are proud to announce that we will be joined by the Correctional Association’s Juvenile Justice Coalition for Advocacy Day 2011 on Tuesday, March 22. Hundreds of New Yorkers will gather in Albany to urge state legislators to support Governor Cuomo’s initiatives to downsize New York’s prison system and reform the juvenile justice system.

We will open registration for Advocacy Day 2011 shortly. Buses to Albany will leave from locations in New York City including downtown Brooklyn and Harlem. Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be provided to all participants.

We invite interested participants to make a small donation to help defray the transportation costs associated with this all-day event, and we encourage any Drop the Rock supporters who cannot join us in Albany to sponsor a bus seat for another advocate by making a donation.

If your organization is interested in participating in Advocacy Day 2011, please contact Kirsten Escobar, Drop the Rock Coordinator, at 212 – 254 – 5700 or kescobar@correctionalassociation.org.

Albany, here we come!

In the wake of the release of Governor Cuomo’s proposed state budget, prison downsizing has become a high interest topic for news media across the state. Monday’s New York Times featured an editorial that supports Cuomo’s “sensible” proposals for downsizing and echoes much of our current platform. You can read the full editorial here.

An article in last weekend’s Schenectady Daily Gazette deftly outlined all sides of the prison closure debate, including quotes from Bob Gangi. You can read that article below.

This ongoing coverage of our campaign to downsize New York’s prison system safely and swiftly is heartening, and we will continue to pressure Albany policymakers to support Cuomo’s major initiatives to close prisons.

Stay tuned for a big announcement next week about Drop the Rock’s plans for the upcoming legislative session!

Fight looming over prison cuts

The Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY) – Sunday, February 6, 2011
Sara Foss, Gazette Reporter

In the past, few politicians dared talk about downsizing prisons, lest they be labeled soft on crime. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo has jumped right into the politically sensitive issue.

Pointing to a steady decline in the state’s prison population, he has proposed closing prisons and reducing central management staff by 10 percent as part of his plan for reducing the state’s enormous budget deficit. He estimates that downsizing the prison system will save $72 million in 2011-12 and $112 million in 2012-13.

The governor’s proposal has won praise from prison reform advocates but is opposed by the union that represents corrections workers, the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association.

“We’re encouraged,” said Robert Gangi, executive director of the prison watchdog group the Correctional Association of New York and a spokesman for its Drop the Rock campaign, which supports making the state prison system smaller. “As the crime rate has declined, it has gotten harder for people to make the argument that we need to lock up more people to make us safer.”

With so many empty prison beds and the state facing a fiscal crisis, Gangi said, “it’s almost like a perfect storm has come together to give Cuomo the political courage and determination to step out very forthrightly on this issue.”

In a statement, Donn Rowe, president of the prison guard union, said that Cuomo’s plan to close prisons “is a direct threat to the public safety of all New Yorkers and will jeopardize the safety of inmates and the brave men and women who serve as New York’s correctional officers. If enacted, the closures will make New York’s tough times even tougher by damaging a prison system that is already overcrowded and understaffed. Any cuts to the Department of Corrections should start with the top-heavy bloated bureaucracy within the agency and not the safety of the public.” Read more…

On Tuesday, Governor Cuomo released his 2011-12 Executive Budget. The entire budget can be viewed on the NYS Division of the Budget’s website, and the “Public Safety” section can be found here. Bob Gangi released a statement in response:

“The governor’s proposed downsizing of 3,500 prison beds represents a major step in the right direction. Responding appropriately both to the state’s fiscal crisis and the system’s large and growing number of empty beds, he has put flesh on the bone of his previous statement that New York should not create jobs for some people by locking up other people. He has begun undoing the misbegotten prison expansion policies of the recent past that led to a bloated and burdensome corrections budget and the unnecessary confinement of 1,000′s of low-level offenders. He has initiated, in effect, a new era of prison policy for New York that could very well provide a model for other fiscally challenged states across the country.”

Still, while we are mainly positive about the governor’s plan, we have concerns about two points: the process for identifying the actual prisons to be closed includes a task force appointed by Cuomo and that Cuomo excluded from closure consideration the maximum security facilities – the large, old prisons upstate that the state should prioritize for shuttering.

Now that we have the governor’s proposals, the coalition can better plan our strategies to promote our downsizing agenda. Join us on Thursday, February 3 at 6pm to discuss how Drop the Rock will organize to call on state legislators to invest in communities, not prisons.

As the 2011 legislative session approaches, Drop the Rock is pleased to announce the release of our latest policy paper, “Time’s Up for New York Prisons.” Below is the official press release for the report. Click here to download the paper.

Correctional Association Releases “Time’s Up for New York Prisons,” Policy Paper Urging Governor Elect Cuomo and State Legislative Leaders to Close Empty Prisons as Way to Save Urgently Needed Public Funds

Report Presents Specific Measures the State Should Adopt to Reduce Prison Population and Capacity

New York, New York: The Correctional Association of New York released a policy paper today, Time’s Up for New York Prisons, presenting practical measures that New York’s leaders could adopt to close unused institutions and save millions of dollars without reducing needed services for people caught up in the criminal justice system or increasing the risk to public safety. The report emphasizes undeniable facts that provide support for the Correctional Association’s case about the merits of prison downsizing in New York: the state’s prison population has dropped by over 15,000 people in the past decade; the state’s crime rate has declined by more than 28% over the same period; New York faces a deficit of about $35 billion over the next three years; and, the state’s prison system is operating thousands of empty beds at significant taxpayer expense.

Robert Gangi, the Correctional Association’s executive director, said, “Given the convergence of current political and economic factors, given all those empty spaces in the system and the dropping crime rate, why shouldn’t the state’s leaders move to close facilities?”

The report proposes additional population reduction measures that Albany policymakers can adopt that would make the cost saving step of shutting prisons easier to take: Read more…

The below op-ed piece, authored by CA Executive Director Robert Gangi, appeared in Tuesday’s Albany Times Union.

Liberate N.Y. from its prisons
By Robert Gangi
Published: Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Despite a sharply declining prison population and the very real need to cut state agency budgets, New York has closed hardly any of its underutilized prisons. For example, the state budget approved earlier this year included eliminating funding for just 450 beds.

More ambitious plans to shut facilities have failed largely for political reasons. Concerned about the loss of jobs, the correction officers union and legislators from upstate areas where most of the prisons are located have successfully blocked most closure proposals made by the state’s past three governors: George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson.

Now, however, trends that have been building for years in New York have reached a level of an almost perfect storm. The stage has been set for a major government initiative to close costly, empty prisons. Those trends include a continuing fiscal crisis with a projected $9 billion deficit for the next fiscal year alone, a prison population that has declined from more than 71,600 in 1999 to fewer than 57,000 today, a 28 percent drop in the crime rate in the last 10 years and a growing number of unused prison beds — more than 8,000, by the state’s own recent count.

Now Andrew Cuomo is coming into office with an unmistakable mandate to put state government in order. Cuomo stated during the campaign that he was prepared to stand up to the state’s public service employee unions and to oversee substantial cuts in state agency budgets.

Given the convergence of these political and economic factors, given all those empty spaces and the dropping crime rate, why shouldn’t the state’s leaders move to close facilities? Read more…

On Saturday, November 20, teams of Drop the Rock volunteers gathered over 1,300 petition signatures calling for prison closures and reinvestment in our communities. Dozens of volunteers, including the Correctional Association’s own Bob Gangi, hit the streets and engaged their neighbors in conversations about New York’s prison system.

A big thank you to the team captains and volunteers who made Empowerment Day such a success! I would like to extend a special thank you to Drop the Rock interns Jahneille and Rachel for their valuable organizing help.

Please join us for our next Drop the Rock coalition meeting on Thursday, December 2 at 6pm at the Correctional Association, where we will continue to discuss and plan for follow-up strategies aimed at promoting our prison downsizing agenda.

Last week, Crain’s New York’s newsletter Crain’s Insider featured an encouraging piece about the likelihood that Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo will take prison downsizing seriously following his transition into office. Below is the article:

Two prisons to close; Cuomo eyes others
Crain’s Insider
November 16, 2010

Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo has begun to tour state prisons. The purpose is obvious, if unspoken: With the state facing a $9 billion deficit, he must decide which facilities should be closed. Read more…

Statewide Campaign Promotes Prison Closures and Community Reinvestment
Drop the Rock Empowerment Day: November 20, 2010
Coalition Urges Governor-Elect Cuomo to Close Empty Prisons as Way to Save Millions and to Reduce Budget Shortfall

NEW YORK – On Saturday, November 20, in neighborhoods across the city and state that are heavily impacted by incarceration, teams of community members, young people, formerly incarcerated people, and families will come together to educate the public about the Correctional Association’s campaign to reduce the use of incarceration in New York. Volunteers will register voters and gather signatures on Drop the Rock’s new petition calling for prison closures, reforms of work release, parole, and merit time, full repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, and reinvestment in communities.

WHEN: 11 AM – 3 PM Saturday, November 20, 2010.

WHO: Volunteers involved with the Correctional Association’s Drop the Rock Campaign including young people, individuals who have been in prison, families, and faith leaders.

WHAT: The Drop the Rock Campaign is organizing Empowerment Day to build political power in neighborhoods that are directly affected by NY’s imprisonment policies. Through petitioning and voter registration, volunteers will seek to hold elected officials accountable to low-income communities of color.

WHERE: Neighborhoods include:

• South Bronx
• West Farms, the Bronx
• Jamaica, Queens
• Astoria, Queens
• Long Island City, Queens
• Crown Heights, Brooklyn
• Harlem
• Washington Square, Manhattan
• Fulton Mall, Brooklyn
• Morningside Heights, Manhattan
• West Hill, Albany

WHY: New York is facing a budget deficit of about $9 billion this year. Governor-elect Cuomo is promising across the board agency cuts that will produce severe reductions in needed services like healthcare, housing, and education. Meanwhile, the state is wasting millions of dollars on failed incarceration policies and empty prison beds. In the last decade, New York’s prison population has declined by over 15,000 people, and the crime rate has dropped by over 28%. To save money, further reduce crime, and build healthy communities, Mr. Cuomo should plan to enact constructive criminal justice reforms including the expansion of work release, the full repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, and the closure of underutilized prisons.

“We look to the new governor and the legislature to exercise leadership aimed at reducing our prison population and saving the state money, while investing in approaches that cut recidivism rates and restore the well-being of our people and communities,” says Robert Gangi, Executive Director of the Correctional Association of NY. “Our question to state policymakers is simple: At a time when government plans to lay off long-term workers and cut valuable services, how can you overlook the hundreds of millions of dollars in savings achievable by closing empty prisons?”

“Crime has dropped dramatically in the past 10 years, and the prison population has declined by over 15,000 people,” states Drop the Rock Campaign Coordinator Kirsten Escobar. “Empowerment Day has taken root across the state in communities which have been most negatively affected by the state’s imprisonment policies. Leaders in these areas agree that NY can no longer base the economies of rural districts on the warehousing of low-income people of color.”

Please see Drop the Rock’s brochure and petition, and visit www.droptherock.org for more information and event location addresses.