July 13, 2009
Prison vacancy rate
As the correctional workers union argues state prisons are operating at over 100 percent of capacity, the state's prisons chief insists they are "undercrowded". (UPDATED)
Corrections Commissioner Brian Fischer writes : More than 5,000 general confinement beds, in staffed and unstaffed housing units, sit vacant in our state prison system. That's nearly one vacant bed for every 10 inmates. Fischer's op-ed comes as the Assembly minority prepares for hearings Thursday on the prison system. He explains why the NYS Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) can reach opposite conclusions on prison capacity.NYSCOPBA relies on a decades-old, federally mandated statistic that measures the total number of inmates only against the number of "permanent" general confinement beds in the system. But there is never a time when every inmate needs a general confinement bed; far from it. Every day, thousands of inmates are in infirmary beds and mental health observation cells, out to court or serving disciplinary sanctions in Special Housing Unit cells.
The statistic doesn't count those thousands of beds. Nor does it count 2,183 general confinement beds that were originally installed as "temporary" beds. In reality, those beds have been in use for years, will continue to be used, and are in the process of being reclassified as "permanent" beds through authorization by the State Commission of Correction (SCOC), the agency that oversees the Department of Correctional Services.
UPDATE: NYSCOPBA's legislative director Chris Leo responds:
The 102.2 percent capacity that the New York Prisons are currently operating at is a number that the NYS Dept. of Corrections uses and provides to us. NYSCOPBA does not "rely" on any information and must depend on the information that DOCS calculates and disseminates to the public.
The union has also targeted the "overabundance of highly paid administrators at DOCS headquarters in Albany. Annual payroll of over 53 million dollars [$76 million including benefits] is being maintained by the building two administrations by cutting the security within the facilities around the state, while maintaining top heavy salaries and lavish benefits.
In his op-ed, Fischer says he is reducing central office staff by not filling vacancies.
Last fall, Fischer closed 48 housing units with 1,900 general confinement beds. We were still left with more than 3,300 general confinement beds available for immediate use in staffed housing units. That's why on July 1 we closed three correctional camps with nearly 900 beds, most of them unused in recent years. And it's why we can, should and will close Washington Correctional Facility's annex and six other prison annexes with nearly 1,400 beds (many of them unused, including about 180 of Washington annex's 204) on Oct. 1--still leaving the system with more than 1,000 vacant general confinement beds available. Keeping the camps and annexes open would cost you and other state taxpayers $31 million a year. So far, Fischer says, no correctional officers have lost their jobs in the downsizing. The union has called for eliminating double-bunking, which it says would make prisons safer.
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