BY CARA MATTHEWS -ALBANY BUREAU - FEBRUARY 10, 2010, 7:00 PM

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20100210/NEWS01/2100355/1126/news/Corrections-officers-fighting-proposed-closure-of-four-prisons-over-two-years

ALBANY - The state Correctional Officers Union on Wednesday announced an advertising campaign against Gov. David Paterson's budget proposals to close four prisons, including Butler Correctional Facility in Wayne County and three in the North Country.

Paterson is calling for the closures as the inmate population continues to decline. The reduction is 1,100 prisoners in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, and there is a projected decrease of another 1,000 in the next fiscal year. That would bring the total to 57,600 inmates.

Correction officers said it would be unwise to close the prisons because they are understaffed and overcrowded. The prison system as a whole is operating at 102 percent capacity, and 122 percent capacity at maximum-security facilities, union officials said. Double-bunking inmates in cells designed for one is not uncommon and poses potential safety problems, they said.

"Tough times call for tough choices, but choosing to close prisons at the risk of public safety and jobs is a choice New York cannot afford," Donn Rowe, president of the state Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said at a news conference.

Rowe said the state Department of Correctional Services wants to lay off officers but has not made cuts to its "bloated bureaucracy." He said the agency administration has more than doubled in the past 10 years, while the inmate population has decreased and 2,500 correction officers have lost their jobs.

But the Department of Correctional Services disputes the union's claims and doesn't believe closing the facilities would create dangerous conditions. The union's statistics use an outdated methodology that doesn't take into account the thousands of additional beds created for medical and mental-health needs or new segregation cells, agency spokesman Erik Kriss said.

Since April 2007, Corrections Commissioner Brian Fischer has reduced central-office staff by 9 percent, while the number of correction officers dropped 3 percent, Kriss said.

"We are doing our part to reduce administration here and we continue to try to do that. Everybody's taking a hit because of the budget crunch and inmate population decline," he said.

The closures would reduce the state prison workforce by 637 employees, and the state would save a total of $59 million over two years, according to the governor's budget office.

Butler Correctional Facility in Wayne County would close its minimum-security unit in January 2011, but the medium-security facility would remain open. The annual savings to the state would be $5.2 million. The governor proposed shuttering the Lyon Mountain minimum-security prison in Clinton County at the same time.

The Moriah shock-incarceration facility in Essex County and Ogdensburg medium-security prison in St. Lawrence County would be closed in April 2011.

"I believe I can speak for all of our members when I saw we're fed up with the department's decision to close prisons while putting public safety and jobs in jeopardy," said Al Mothershed, the union's regional vice president for western New York.

Butler minimum-security prison was supposed to close last year, but it was kept open with 75 inmates and 52 officers, said Tim Casper, correction officer and chief sector steward for the union at Butler. With current staff, it could house up to 194 inmates, he said.

"People are upset that we're on the chopping block again," Casper said.

The minimum-security unit sends out prisoner work crews on a daily basis, and they put in a total of 179,453 man hours in 2008-09, Casper said. Examples of what they do include working inside and on the grounds of Auburn Correctional Facility, constructing outbuildings at state facilities and removing asbestos.

The total number of employees at the minimum-security unit was 67 as of Dec. 31, 2009, the Department of Correctional Services said.

The union's radio and television ads started this week in areas that would be hit by the closures and in major media markets, said Rowe, who estimated that the entire campaign would cost a few hundred thousand dollars. The union is planning mailings to voters.