The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"If I thought this was an impossible situation, I would have said to Betty, 'It won't work, it's too far north,'" Hassell-Thompson, D-Bronx, said, sitting at a table in Gus's Diner following the tour. "But I'm not clear that we have the shovel-ready plan that we need to have in order to qualify (for federal stimulus money)."

Little said it was important to remember that, unlike more metropolitan prisons, there is little other use for the Camp Gabriels facility, and not many opportunities in the area to absorb the displaced workforce.

"If 30 families moved as a result, those 30 families affect the schools and the retail stores and the diners," Little said. "A lot of those corrections officers are volunteer firemen; there's a real trickle-down effect here that will be felt."

Gov. David Paterson announced in December his proposal to close New York's four minimum-security prison camps as a means of saving money, citing declining prison population as a reason.

The plan proposed to keep it open, still very much in the conceptual stages, would partner Camp Gabriels with St. Joseph's Rehabilitation Center in Saranac Lake to provide addiction treatment services for the inmates, and Paul Smith's College has proposed renovating the prison's kitchen and creating a culinary program for inmates to earn professional certificates before being released.

"I haven't seen many facilities that are this open, not having walls, and when you have a rehabilitated person going from a less secured facility to a community, it's an easier transition," said Mary Kavaney, the deputy commissioner and counsel for the state Department of Correctional Services. "I don't think you can have that transition from behind the wall to the community without some other step. So it's very unique in that way."

And the plan seems to be in line with Paterson's hopes of reforming the Rockefeller drug laws, to change the emphasis from incarceration to treatment.

According to St. Joseph's Rehabilitation Center CEO Bob Ross, of the 13,400 New York inmates serving drug offense sentences, 39 percent of those are for possession, not dealing, and 80 percent have never been convicted of a violent offense.

But first, a plan must be developed.

Ross said he plans to work with the senators to create a comprehensive plan and cost-benefit analysis of the proposed programs.

"With this kind of program, the costs are worth the costs," Little said.

Mike Facteau, chief steward for Camp Gabriels, said he thought the tour was very positive and looks forward to progress.

"These inmates are going to be going back to her (Hassell-Thompson's) area, and she just wants to make sure that those inmates have the best credentials when they return," he said, adding that the corrections officers are anxious to know the outcome. "They're apprehensive. They know it all depends on the budget. But there is always hope. You never give up."