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May 21, 2008
Makeshift Space for Inmates as Prisons Exceed Capacity
May 20, 2008
Makeshift Space for Inmates as Prisons Exceed Capacity
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
New York’s federal prisons are letting inmates sleep in areas not originally designed for inmate beds — like television rooms — because of overcrowding in excess of 50 percent, according to correspondence with the Federal Bureau of Prisons released on Monday by Senator Charles E. Schumer.
According to Harley G. Lappin, the director of the bureau, more than 5,700 inmates were in New York federal prisons on an average day in the 2007 fiscal year, far above the recommended population of 3,600.
Each of New York’s four federal prisons is at least 50 percent over capacity, with the federal prison in Ray Brook at a high of 61.2 percent over.
The prisons in Ray Brook, in Essex County, and Otisville, in Orange County, are the two federal institutions in New York State now housing inmates in areas not designed for sleeping, Mr. Lappin said. That information came in response to questions by Mr. Schumer’s office.
A spokesman for Mr. Schumer, Josh Vlasto, said that a representative for Mr. Schumer visited Otisville, met with the warden and saw the overcrowding and short staffing firsthand. That, Mr. Vlasto said, prompted Mr. Schumer to ask for the report.
Systemwide, federal prisons are operating at 37 percent above capacity, according to the bureau. But that average disguises a large range: from a low of 10 percent over capacity in minimum-security prisons to a high of 49 percent in high-security institutions. The other two categories are low-security prisons, which are 33 percent over capacity, and medium-security prisons, which are at 47 percent over capacity.
But New York State prisons are strained in large part because federal prisons make an effort to keep prisoners close to their home communities.
The prison population, both state and federal, has been steadily increasing since the early 1980s, partly because of the length of sentences, which for comparable low-level crimes are more severe than they are in European nations.
New York ranks fourth among states in the size of the total prison population, behind California, Texas and Florida.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/nyregion/20prisons.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print
Posted by lois at May 21, 2008 08:46 AM