Prison Break!

Last Wednesday, the changes to the Rockefeller Drug Laws finally went into effect, serving to further reduce a New York State prison population that has already seen a decrease of roughly 12,000 inmates over the past decade. Despite this decrease in the number of incarcerated, New York has been painstakingly slow in reducing the number of prisons and jails in New York, mostly due to strong opposition from local small-time politicians and prison guard unions. In fact, since the current budget crisis has come into effect, Albany has only closed 3 prison camps and 7 annexes to current prisons, totaling 2250 beds, saving a whopping $52 million over the next two years.

Not surprisingly, most of the opposition to the closure of local prisons and jails occurs in upstate, where in most cases these correctional facilities provide valuable sources of local employment. The potential savings from closing these jails, as seen by the already realized savings from just 2250 beds, is enormous, but the mindset in Albany states that higher taxes are preferable to job loss, which makes sense. But the prison system currently has over 5000 empty beds in almost 70 facilities, so the state is looking at over $100 million in potential savings from closing these correctional facilities, which to me seems immeasurably preferable to higher income and other taxes in the state. These savings stem from the costs of incarceration: for starters, $35,000 per year for security, administration, and healthcare alone PER PRISONER. This doesn't include other costs, such as rehabilitation programs, inmate support, post-release counseling, and other long-term costs.

The biggest issue facing Herkimer County in the upcoming legislative election, not surprisingly, is the construction of a new jail. Simply put, the main reason is overcrowding at the new jail. The proposed site, the old P&C site on Rt. 28, will cost at least $240,000 to fully clean before construction can even begin. This is in addition to the many years' worth of administrative costs to find a suitable site.

Call me naive, but last I checked, our jail was full of small time offenders, Oneida County transfers, and Plaxico Burress. With the rest of the state reducing their populations, and saving money at the same time, what sense does it make for Herkimer County to add more beds in a new facility that would be exorbitantly expensive? There is no connection at all between prison population and crime rate. Let me repeat that: NO CONNECTION EXISTS BETWEEN PRISON POPULATION AND CRIME RATE. Herkimer County in general spends way too much money on security and a sheriff's department to protect our glorious county from small time offenders, petty crimes, and drug offenses. When was the last murder in the county? Chester Gillette? Secondly, our jail is not a large source of jobs in the community to begin with, nothing close to the size of Remington. Herkimer is wasting money paying the entire Sheriff's Department, legislators, and jail employees for crimes that do not effect the public at large and to provide a sense of security that is a fallacy at best.

So I propose this idea to a cash strapped county and state: do not build a new jail! Let small time offenders and drug offenders go under a work release program, where at the very least the community can benefit from the cheap labor. Help New York save money in this time of fiscal crisis instead of wastefully throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new jail.