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March 31, 2009
NY budget deal calls for closing 3 prison camps
NY budget deal calls for closing 3 prison camps
By MICHAEL VIRTANEN | Associated Press Writer
March 30, 2009
Newsday
ALBANY, N.Y. - The state budget negotiated by New York's Democratic leaders would close three minimum-security prison camps upstate and shutter a once prominent investigative agency established in the 1950s.
Paterson administration officials say Camp Pharsalia in Chenango County, Camp McGregor in Saratoga County and Camp Gabriels in Franklin County would close on or after July 1, saving an estimated $12 million in the budget year that starts Wednesday.
The inmate population in New York's prisons has dropped by about 10,000 in a decade.
Gabriels is at 29 percent of capacity, Pharsalia at 36 percent and McGregor under 20 percent, said Erik Kriss, spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services. Another camp, Georgetown in southern Madison County, will remain open.
The corrections commissioner would have the authority to also close the six prison annexes that are on the grounds of prisons.
The budget package contains measures proposed by a special sentencing commission expected to reduce the inmate population by another 1,600, including graduated sanctions for parole violations, Kriss said.
Another measure would allow inmates up to age 50 to go to six-month shock camps instead of the last three years of their sentences. The age limit now is 40. A third would enable some inmates convicted of violent crimes to shorten their sentences by six months of merit time for meeting various goals. Sex offenders and prisoners convicted of first-degree murder would be ineligible, Kriss said.
The budget package includes a proposal by Gov. David Paterson to save $4.15 million by letting the state Commission of Investigation go out of business. The commission has broad authority to investigate corruption, misconduct and mismanagement in state and local government.
The panel advocated continuing its broad powers, which critics say haven't been effectively used for several years, and combined into a single entity with the Inspector General's office and the Public Integrity Commission, the state government's other two watchdog entities.
Voting is expected this week on the $131.8 billion budget.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--nystatebudget-pri0330mar30,0,1886912.story
Posted by lois at March 31, 2009 09:36 AM