Politics on the Hudson

Hundreds of correction officers traveled to the Capitol today to urge lawmakers to reject a plan by Gov. David Paterson to cut about 2,000 of their jobs.

Instead, officials of their union said, the department should cut administrators to save money.

“It is extremely disturbing to NYSCOPBA that those charged with developing plans to instittue saving measures refuse to look in the mirror when making those decisions,’‘  union President Donn Rowe told a group of Republican Assembly members, many of whom represent areas where prisons are located.

The union, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, wants the department to slash some of the hundreds of administrative staff who work at the department’s headquarters in Albany, eliminate some of the 53 deputy-commissioner jobs and other administrators at the state’s 69 prisons. The union says the salaries of the Albany workers alone amount to more than $56 million a year.

There was no immediate response from Commissioner Brian Fischer. But the department has said in the past that jobs can be cut because the number or inmates has dropped from about 71,000 to about 60,000 over the last decade. The union maintains that the prisons are still filled beyond capacity.

The job cuts are supposed to take effect by July 1.