Politics on the Hudson

   The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association is opposing the state Department of Correctional Services’ plan to consolidate inmates and officers at 17 state prisons. DOCS will leave 149 correction officer jobs temporarily unfilled.

   The prisons and the number of units to be vacated, beds left empty and staff positions left unfilled include:

  —Albion in Orleans County: 2 units, 72 beds, 11 position.

  —Butler in Wayne County, minimum security portion: 1 unit, 48 beds, 5 positions.

  —Groveland in Livingston County: 2 units, 26 beds, 5 positions.  

  —Livingston in Livingston County: 1 unit, 60 beds, 5 positions.

  —Wyoming in Wyoming County: 1 unit, 60 beds, 5 positions.

   On Monday, the Department of Correctional Services announced its plans to temporarily consolidate 22 inmate “under-populated” housing units at 17 prisons. The consolidation will take place over the next few weeks, and correction officers in the vacated units will be reassigned to vacant posts, according to DOCS. Continued decline in the inmate population has prompted the change, which will  save about $8.4 million a year, not including benefits, and reduce overtime.

   Rowe said the consolidation plan would further tax a prison system that is already overcrowded and understaffed. “Commissioner (Brian) Fischer is choosing to cram more inmates into less space, and in doing so he is putting inmates and officers in a dangerous situation. This consolidation plan is more like an overcrowding plan,” Rowe said in a statement.

   DOCS disputes union complaints about overcrowding. There are more than 5,500 vacant beds, according to the agency.

   Gov. David Paterson’s budget proposal calls for closing four minimum-security prisons, including Butler Correctional Facility.

   The Correction Officers union disagrees with how DOCS calculates empty beds. Rowe said the state refuses to accurately count double-bunked cells.  New York has more than 8,000 double-bunked inmates, meaning two inmates are housed in a space designed for one.

   “It is essential that the public know the real facts behind these troubling trends at DOCS which include a prison system operating at 102 percent capacity and maximum security facilities operating at more than 122 percent capacity,” he said.

   But according to DOCS, all but a handful of the nearly 3,000 double cells in the system were originally built to house two inmates or were properly converted to double cells. The union sued over the conversions, but the courts determined that they had been done properly.

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