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Fewer Prisoners, Fewer Prisons?


prisons, marcy correctional facility
The Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate Oneida County.

It seems simple. With prison populations declining and crime rates plummeting, Gov. David Paterson has proposed closing four upstate correctional facilities. It is estimated the move would save $7 million this year and $52 million in the next fiscal year. And in a year when the governor is proposing billion dollar cuts to education and health care, one might think closing three prisons in upstate New York would be an obvious move.

It's not. While some advocates charge that Paterson's planned closings don’t go far enough, a combination of political and economic concerns could save the three institutions on Paterson's list.

For example, the Moriah Shock Correctional Facility, which Paterson has proposed closing, is in the area where the Lake Champlain Bridge was destroyed, leaving the area economically crippled. Area resident say they cannot afford to lose the prison as well.

The Ogdensburg Correctional Facility, to take another instance, is in the district of Sen. Darrel Aubertine, an upstate Democrat who helps make up his party's uber-slim Senate majority. Voting for a budget that closed the prison in his district would be political poison for the freshman senator, and it is unlikely his conference would support anything that would put his seat in jeopardy.

Mount Lyon Correctional Facility is also on Paterson's list.

How Much They Cost

Despite the opposition to the closings, the Correctional Association of New York, an advocacy group, would shut more facilities and came to Albany on Tuesday with hundreds of members to press the legislature on the issue. The association estimates that New York state prisons have 6,300 empty beds that cost taxpayers some $140 million over a two-year period. Incarcerating a single individual costs the state $55,000 a year. Meanwhile, it is estimated that maintaining an empty bed costs around $22,000 annually.

Where They Count

The city of Ogdensburg has a population thought to be over 11,000 and their median household income is a little over $23,000 -- compared to the national median of around $40,000. The city has an 11 percent unemployment rate. The Ogdensburg Correctional Facility employs 287 workers and has an annual payroll of over $20 million.

Ogdensburg City School District Superintendent Timothy M. Vernsey told the Watertown Daily Times that the closure would have a trickle down effect. "As employees relocate for work, it negatively affects our enrollment numbers, which, in turn, affects the amount of state aid the district will receive," he told the Daily Times. "Eliminating a major employer in an already stressed community is devastating news."

The Essex County Board of Supervisors commissioned an economic report on the impact closing the Moriah Shock Correctional Facilitiy in Mineville would have. The facility provides 102 jobs but the report says those jobs make up about 1 percent of the county economy. According to the report, closing the prison would send the area's 10.3 unemployment rate up to 11.1 percent.

According to the board, the prison provides the area with about $8 million in revenue a year -- almost the same amount of money the state would save by closing the prison. The report also considered the benefit that the county received from having inmates perform community service. Prisoners did 94,136 hours of community service in 2009 -- a third of which was working for the Department of Conservation. The report states that inmates are often the frontline labor crews that clean up from natural disasters.

While these communities get jobs from the prison system, they also get political clout because the census counts inmates as living where they are jailed, not in the communities they hail from. Prisoners in New York State are mostly blacks and Hispanics who come from poor neighborhoods in the city. Most correctional facilities are far upstate in small, rural, white communities. The prisoners boost the population of some towns that have been losing people to other parts of the state and the country.

Democrats have introduced legislation that would count inmates where they come from when it comes to drawing legislative districts. This would almost certainly result in more members of the State Assembly and Senate from the city and fewer from upstate. Not surprisingly, Republicans from rural upstate prison communities steadfastly oppose it.

Most Democratic senators are loathe to talk about the chances of prison closures making it through this budget process, even though a good majority of them are in favor of the idea. "Shut 'em down! I'm sick of hearing Republicans complain they won't have anyone to cut their grass," said one Democratic senator whose district does not have a prison.

"Since entering the Senate, I have heard my downstate Democratic colleagues repeatedly call to close our upstate facilities, often citing what they believe to be an unfair counting of inmates in the federal census," said Sen. Betty Little, who represents a district where two prisons would be closed, in a statement released after Paterson's budget was revealed. "Closures not only directly impact those employed at correctional facilities, but there's also a ripple effect that is tough for rural and economically depressed communities in the North Country to absorb."

State Sen. Liz Krueger said the communities would need help if the prisons were to leave. "We need to right-size the prison system," she said. "Prisons rank very low on the scale of good economic development. But at the same time we need to help upstate with economic development."

Caitlin Dunklee of the Correctional Association says sending prisoners upstate from New York's downstate communities not only devastates those communities’ voting power but also destroys families. "Ogdensberg is literally right on the Canadian border," said Dunklee. "Free transportation is hard to find and making a 10-hour trip can be impossible" She says this leads to mothers losing custody of their children and other inmates losing the support of their families.

Counting Beds -- and Who's in Them

On Tuesday, lobbyists and advocates on different sides of the issue stood face to face, jam-packed into elevators, spilling out of meeting rooms, standing at ends of halls, lost and looking for room numbers. At the Legislative Office Building there was no question that budget season is in full swing. Advocates from the Correctional Association went into meetings with legislators and their staffs touting statistics that point a steady decline in prison population.

According to the state the inmate population has declined by almost 14,000 over the last 10 years -- a rate of nearly 30 percent. The number of inmates has declined by 4 percent this year alone and it is expected to decline by another 1,000 during the 2010-2011 fiscal year. But just last week legislators were being told a different story by lobbyists for the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association. There are approximately 59,000 inmates in New York's correctional system.

The correctional officers' union and lawmakers who represent districts that are home to the facilities say that prisons are actually at or above capacity. Donn Rowe, president of the union, testified at budget hearings earlier this year that cutting prisons will put communities in "serious jeopardy," due to security concerns. He said New York prisons are operating at 102 percent of capacity, with maximum security prisons at 122 percent. He also said prisoners are being forced to double up in cells that were originally designed to house one inmate. That situation, he said, could lead to more violence.

Eric Kriss, spokesperson for The Department of Correctional Services, says the correctional workers' tally doesn't take into account inmates who are in work release programs, in the hospital or in other disciplinary housing situations; instead they compare the number of prisoners to the number of beds that exist. "Even if by some miracle one day there wasn't anyone who needed disciplinary housing or to be in a treatment bed," said Kriss, "we would have the space for them because we would convert those beds to suit the general population."

The Department of Correctional Services has initiated a bed consolidation process to move staff and inmates out of sparsely populated prison wings. It estimates that move will save taxpayers around $8 million without costing any jobs. In fact, the three prison closures proposed in Paterson's budget would not necessarily lead to any layoffs, according Kriss. Staff at closed prisons will be offered jobs at other locations. The problem, he said, is that a lot of civilian (i.e. non-officer) staff may not want to move to a new area.

The Department of Correctional Services finds itself in the middle of the push to close prisons on hand and the drive to preserve every last one on the other. Department officials see themselves somewhere in the middle -- wanting to close some prisons that make fiscal sense to close but wanting to be able to respond should the inmate population increase.

Getting People Out of Prison

The Correction Association thinks an increase is unlikely in the near future. Instead, they think the state will see a drastic drop in the prison population thanks to the repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws. Department of Corrections officials say that with the repeal having gone into effect only a year or so ago, it is far too early to tell if a drastic reduction will materialize.

The Correctional Association is pushing for a number of measures that would leave more prison beds empty. For example it would like to see an increase in work release programs so that more inmates could transition back to a normal life. That, Kriss said, would require the legislature or governor to change a measure enacted during the Pataki administration that reduced the kinds of offenders who are eligible for work release. The Correctional Association is also pressing the legislature to reform parole so that minor violations would not land an offender in prison. The Association also wants to see the Parole Board increase the numbers of prisoners granted release on parole and awarded merit time based on behavior, so that prisoners who behave well get out more quickly.

Unsatisfied with the state's approach to shutting jails, the association plans on starting a board to review prison populations and determine which prisons should be closed. "We would like to start a community review board for prison closures. We need to see which prisons make more sense to close,"said Dunklee.

The Correctional Association also thinks money saved by closing prisons should go to creating opportunities in communities across the state. The group wants some money spent on community-based alternative sentencing programs, drug treatment and job training programs. As for the upstate communities, Dunklee said she thinks they need help. But she added, "Prisons should not be used as economic engines."

How to Fix New York's State Police


When the New York Times revealed that state troopers had been part of an alleged effort by Gov. David Paterson's office to convince a woman not to seek an order of protection against his aide David Johnson, not many around Albany were surprised that members of the executive services detail were involved.

In recent years, the detail has been implicated in a number of scandals involving the political influence of the governors it is charged with protecting.

In fact, a number of legislators pushing for a commission to look into how politics influences state troopers say they have been concerned with the issue for quite some time. Sen. Eric Adams and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries say they has planned to introduce the legislation to create the commission well before the Paterson incident hit the front page of the Times. The latest revelations, though, have given their efforts increased prominence and prompted other politicians and law enforcement officials to consider how New York runs its state police force.

Beyond Their Reach?

In the latest case, state troopers contacted the alleged domestic violence victim in a case where they had no jurisdiction. City police were involved in taking the domestic violence call, and state troopers traditionally do not have a role in policing New York City.

State Police Commissioner Harry Corrbitt's explanation of the situation to the New York Times didn't help ease anyone's concern. "We never pressured her, at least what I was advised; we never pressured her not to press charges," Corbitt, who Paterson appointed, said. "We just gave her options."

Corbitt even said the detail's actions were standard operating procedure. "It's typical if it involves anything that might involve a media event; it doesn't have to be a senior official to the governor," Corbitt told the Times. "It could be a politician or a high-profile physician, anything that might pique interest in the press, because it's a special circumstance." Experts and legislators say that that is far from standard operating procedure.

Deputy Secretary for Public Safety Denise O'Donnell, who was Corbitt's boss, was so upset about the situation that she resigned. O'Donnell said Corbitt had assured her previously that state police had no contact with the woman in the case, Sher-unna Booker. Corbitt, who resigned this week, said O'Donnell had misunderstood him.

Regardless of exactly who directed the state police to visit Booker -- one of the issues now under investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- their action clearly did not represent standard operating procedure and raises troubling question about political influence on the agency.

This issue of politicians' influencing the leadership of the state police has reared its ugly head multiple times over the years, under three different governors, despite action by two of them to stop it. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer put O'Donnell in charge of the state police in reaction to the Troopergate scandal. In that case, Spitzer's office instructed troopers to keep tabs on former Sen. Majority Leader Joe Bruno. Locked in a bitter political battle with Bruno, Spitzer hoped to discredit the senator for his use of state-paid travel to political events.

But O'Donnell's appointment didn't fix things. In 2008 when Paterson became governor, he asked Cuomo to look into whether there was a group of rogue, politically motivated troopers inside the capitol detail. His new superintendent, Corbitt, increased the size of the executive detail and tried to change the culture of the force with new training.

Cuomo's report found no criminal wrongdoing among troopers but did conclude that the state police leadership had been greatly influenced by politics. Cuomo's report said that former State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett, who served under Gov. George Pataki, ordered troopers to hide a report detailing a domestic violence incident that took place at the home of former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney -- the man labeled Congressman Kick Ass by President George W. Bush for his role in the Brooks Brothers Riot during the Florida vote recount in 2000.

Start at the Top

The recent revelations by the New York Times make it clear that politics still have a powerful influence over state police actions. Members of Paterson's personal security detail visited the woman who was seeking an order of protection against his aide. Experts say the kind of troopers who get assigned to security details such as Paterson's earn their position through their political connections. Now Adams and Jefferies propose creation of a commission that will "investigate systematic misconduct, abuse of power and inappropriate political intervention with respect to the New York State Police."

The commission would be modeled after the Knapp Commission, which was used to investigate corruption in the city police in the 1970s following the revelations by officer Frank Serpico .

"The role of the New York State Police must be free from the influence of politics," said Adams, a former captain in the New York City Police Department. "The state police cannot serve, protect and defend the people if the integrity of their decisions is hamstrung by political concerns. The commission established by our legislation will guarantee the independence of the state police and ensure that its focus on law enforcement and crime prevention remains undiluted by any outside pressure or manipulation."

The State Police Benevolent Association, the union for the troopers, supports the idea. "The rank-and-file troopers have not been involved in the reported political manipulation," said PBA President Thomas H. Mungeer. "Any commission that would potentially review the New York State Police should do so starting at the top management. However, if a progressive and strong leader is appointed as superintendent of the state police in the meantime, that may negate the need for such a commission."

Terry O'Neill, a public safety advocate and frequent Albany commentator, agrees that the review should start at the top. "The organization does not need to be restructured. The state police is a very healthy, sound organization. The problems seem to stem from how they interact with the first family. Something is going on between the second floor and the third, where the superintendent's office is." O'Neill also said he thinks a strong superintendent could install the discipline the organization needs.

"A lot of us worry that the brand of the state police is being tarnished with what is going on," he said "I don't know if this is criminal or not, but this is unethical," said O'Neill. "Everyone should be on their best behavior, and some people need to be fired."

O'Neill, who worked as a legal advisor for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services under Gov. Mario Cuomo, said he never saw this kind of thing go on between troopers and Cuomo's office during his time at the capitol. "Back to the very beginning, state troopers have prided themselves on their relationship with the governor," said O'Neill, "but this is making people look bad."

Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a city police department veteran (and no relation to Denise), said he also believes the new commission should focus on leadership. But, he said, picking those who would sit on the commission is critical. "You need to staff the commission with former FBI agents, people from law enforcement -- rock solid police, judges -- people who don't take calls from people, people who can say no to a politician."

Secondly, he said, the commission should consider establishing rules to limit contact between the executive branch and the state police superintendent. "You need to clear things up and make sure there are only two times when the governor should speak to the superintendent: when he hires him and when he fires him. It should work something like the Bloomberg-Kelly model, the opposite of the Giuliani-Kerick model."

Maria Haberfeld, professor of police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that she would advocate changing how the superintendent is appointed. "It is very hard to change police culture. The police are a very political organization -- people may not realize it but they are appointed by politicians. So if you want to change the culture you have to change this -- not so much the organizational structure, but who heads it."

Haberfeld said she thinks an external commission made up of "individuals who can be held accountable for their choices" should be created to name a superintendent. "Until the appointment isn't in the hands of one individual, nothing will change," said Haberfeld.

Eugene O'Donnell disagrees. He points to former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, who was appointed by commission, but according to O'Donnell, was answerable to no one but himself.

What should a commission look for in a candidate for the job? "You need to look for a candidate who has a history of questioning the politicians. You can find it in their file. I believe in promoting from within the organization, but you don't want someone with a perfect file," said Haberfeld. "You don't want someone with a stellar record, because I would say this is someone who will do anything they are told. I would look for someone with a history of being independent, not just doing what the mayor or governor tell them. You're looking for a troublemaker -- not the company man or woman who will always do what they are told."

Too Much Detail

Eugene O'Donnell and others have suggested that reducing the 200-trooper executive detail might help the situation. "Two hundred people! That is the police force of White Plains protecting one person. It goes to their head," O'Donnell said. "That's why you have New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine speeding down the highway to get to the Rotary Club. He's got guys with receivers in their ear. It makes these guys feel above the law."

State police officials have pointed out that troopers from the executive detail aren't assigned solely to protect Paterson but also to provide security for Empire State Plaza, the Executive Mansion, the State Office Campus and Paterson's office in Manhattan.

Nevertheless, O'Donnell suggested there might be ways to reduce the reliance on state troopers as members of the detail for these tasks. Others have suggested rotating the troopers assigned to the detail out on a regular basis.

No matter the solution, legislators, experts and law enforcement officials say that action needs to be taken as quickly as possible to restore faith in the state police and to set an example for those inside the organization. "It's important to address this; this goes all the way down to the street cop who says, 'Oh, this is the way it works!" said O'Donnell. "'You have to be connected.' Well I don't think this is the way it works, but a statement needs to be made so that this does not affect morale and job performance -- 'cause you will get cops who say, 'See, this is how it works! I told you so.'"

Correction: This story originally incorrectly described the Knapp Commission. It has been conrrected.

City Emergency Response Team Had Key Skills for Haiti Mission


U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Michael O'Halloran
New York Task Force 1 search and rescue teams prepares to depart for Haiti.

Soon after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 12, the United States began mobilizing its relief effort for the small, impoverished Caribbean nation. Two days later, responding to a nationwide call for aid to Haiti, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the deployment of urban search and rescue team New York Task Force 1 to help rescue victims. This New York City team, consisting of members of the police and fire departments, specializes in operations involving the collapse of heavy steel and concrete.

The team saved six lives including two children. Three victims were trapped beneath a collapsed grocery store, a middle-aged man was caught under the wreckage of a four-story building, and a young brother and sister were trapped under rubble for eight days. The children's father had been digging with a crowbar that whole time and passing water through a small opening to his children, miraculously keeping them alive. The eight-year-old boy, Kiki, and his ten-year-old sister, Sabrina, emerged extremely dehydrated but, "other than that, they looked like they were ready to play when they came out of the hole," Battalion Chief Joe Downey reported on the fire department's website.

As he was being pulled from the rubble, Kiki flashed a broad smile and raised his arms above his head in triumph as rescuers cheered. "It was the most incredible feeling," said Downey.

In situations such as this, speed is critical to saving as many lives as possible, and so this team mobilized shortly after the quake struck. But how are teams like New York Task Force 1 organized so rapidly, how do they carry out their operations, and who is responsible for their oversight and costs?

A National Network

New York Task Force One is managed by the city Office of Emergency Management. This team is one of 28 emergency response teams sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that are "strategically located throughout the United States" and "can be deployed within six hours of activation," according to the Office of Emergency Management website. In 1989, FEMA established the National Urban Search and Rescue Response System to assemble "local emergency services personnel into integrated disaster response task forces." This was expanded upon in 1991 in the Federal Response Plan, which sponsored the creation of such task forces around the country including New York's.

The federal government, not the city or the state, funds, trains and has the authority to activate these task forces in the event of disasters, natural or otherwise. "The team is funded by, coordinated and overseen by FEMA," said Seth Andrews, deputy press secretary for the Office of Emergency Management. But the city manages "communication between FEMA and the team" and "coordinating within the team itself." This, Andrews said, can include "everything from logistics for food [and] air transportation" to ensure that "team members can show up, pack up their things, load up their equipment and they can get to where they need to be."

The task force includes approximately 220 members from the police and fire departments that can be summoned for rescue operations. The state of New York has another task force, New York Task Force 2 based in the Albany area, but they were not activated for this crisis.

New York 1 can deploy either as a light task force of 34 people or a heavy task force of 80. Workers include emergency physicians, paramedics, structural engineers, hazardous materials technicians, heavy equipment operators, and specialists in canine units, as well as experts on communications, planning, and logistics.

"You do have some people that are there almost, in a sense, behind the scenes, that are helping to coordinate logistics, getting camp set up, things like that," said Andrews.

The Haiti Mission

For their mission in Haiti, the city's task force included 76 members of the police and fire departments and four canine units. They brought 20 tons of the latest technology and equipment including medical supplies and specialized rescue tools. The task force took microphones sensitive enough to detect human breathing, personal protection equipment, tents, power and ready-to-eat meals as well as listening devices, infrared cameras and motion detectors.

Four canines accompanied the team. "The canines that they traveled with are unique," Andrews said. "There are no other in the country of their kind. They are dual-trained meaning that these are regular patrol dogs so when they’re out here in the city they’re trained to apprehend criminals. But they're also cross-trained to be able to sniff out a human body that's still alive, they can detect a heartbeat."

New York Task Force 1 participates in exercises during the year as a unit and "within their respective agencies, they do extensive training on a day to day basis," according to Andrews. In November 2009, its members even participated in an exercise that tested the team’s response to a simulated earthquake.

The last time that the task force deployed was in 2008 for assistance after Hurricanes Ike and Gustav. Similar rescue teams have been utilized after catastrophes like the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Though most fire departments are capable of "performing rescues in light to medium-sized construction collapses," only the urban search and rescue task forces have all the equipment and techniques necessary to operate within the most dangerous conditions according to the Office of Emergency Management website.

Led by battalion Chief Joe Downey, New York's team flew into Haiti in C-17 cargo planes on Jan. 16, two days after they were activated and scheduled to depart. The delay was due to "bottlenecking in and around the Port-au-Prince airport," said Andrews. The airport there, he said, was "jam packed because they had only one air strip that was open at the time."

On the Ground

Upon landing, the task force divided into two groups with each working 12-hour shifts. They relied on local residents to direct them to where people were trapped. Team members usually have enough equipment to be self-sufficient for up to 72 hours and can be re-supplied beyond that mark so that they are not a drain on important local resources but in Haiti, the team had enough supplies to sustain themselves for a week.

In Haiti, the U.S. rescue teams worked under the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department organization leading the relief effort. Similar FEMA-sponsored teams, including the Los Angeles County Urban Search and Rescue Task Force and the Virginia Task Force 2 Urban Search and Rescue team have helped in the ravaged Haitian Capital, Port-au-Prince. The country was divided into a grid so that the 46 teams from around the world were responsible for a designated area. These teams have rescued 132 individuals, with 47 saved by U.S. task forces, according to the mayor’s office.

The New York team returned home Jan, 24 after spending a week helping victims of the earthquake. On Jan. 26, the members of New York Task Force 1 were awarded commendations at City Hall for all their rescue efforts and for saving the lives of six people buried under rubble in Port-au-Prince.

"We are glad to have the members of our Urban Search and Rescue Team, who worked on the front lines of the global rescue effort in Haiti, back home, safe and sound," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the ceremony. "There's an awful lot of work ahead in Haiti, and an awful lot of mourning, but today, we thought it was important to recognize the members of Task Force One, who've made us proud once again."

Bloomberg honored not only the human members of NY-TF1 but also its canines with four specially made edible keys to the city for its German shepherds. "Six survivors out of thousands lost may not seem significant, but I think it's fair to say, to the six people and their loved ones it really means everything," the mayor said.

Task force member Lieutenant Bill Redding paraphrased a Winston Churchill quote when speaking to DNAinfo about the team's work in Haiti. “To every person comes a time in their life when they're tapped on the shoulder and asked to do something unique and specific to their talents. What a shame if that moment finds them unprepared for what would've been their finest hour," Redding said. "This team was tapped on the shoulder and, in my vision, it was their finest hour to date."



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