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.