FALLSBURG, NY — Sullivan Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Fallsburg, NY, is one of two state prisons set to close by November 6, causing an outcry among elected officials over the displacement of hundreds of jobs.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget passed earlier this year includes a proposal to close up to five correctional facilities, citing a declining prison population.

The Correctional Association of New York (CANY), which advised the governor on the budget, said in a statement: “Due to decreases in the state prison population, driven by the success of criminal justice reforms over the past 20 years, the system is well under its rated capacity. Prisons are 70 percent full when considering total beds versus total population.”

At Sullivan Correctional, 56 percent of medical staff positions—22 out of 40—were vacant as of last January, according to CANY. The facility can hold up to 560 inmates, but at one point last June the population dropped to under 400. The average daily population from June 2022 to June 2023 was 411 inmates, according to last year’s audit by the National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape (PREA). The audit counted 385 staff members, along with 18 contractors and 27 volunteers.

The other facility slated to close is Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County. Woodbourne Correctional, a medium-security prison located next to Sullivan Correctional in Fallsburg, will remain open.

One of Sullivan Correctional’s most famous inmates was the serial killer David Berkowitz, also known as “Son of Sam,” who was transferred there in or around 1990 and stayed for many years before moving on to Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County.

‘Abhorrent political game’

Local elected officials have blasted the closures, citing the fates of hundreds of prison workers who will lose their jobs if they don’t want to commute—no one yet knows how far.

Sullivan County Legislature Chair Nadia Rajsz and Town of Fallsburg Supervisor Michael Bensimon  issued a joint statement about the facility, "which has been an integral part of our community for four decades and employs hundreds of local citizens. This action by the State will uproot whole families and shift good-paying, middle-class, union jobs out of our region, which will be difficult to replace."

Rajsz said, “As the wife of a retired state corrections officer whose prison was closed in 2011, I know all too well the hardships associated with these kinds of closures. I feel the pain and frustration of every displaced employee in a very personal way, and I will stand by them as this process unfolds.”

NY Sen. Peter Oberacker, a Republican representing the 51st District, called the closures “just another disturbing extension of the weak-on-crime policies coming from [Hochul] and the extreme downstate liberals.”

If changes are needed, he said, they should “come with sound planning.”

“It is also not lost on me that these closings continue to target Republican-held districts across the state,” he said. “To use the hard-working men and women of our corrections system as pawns in a political game is abhorrent.”

Michele Frazier, a professor of criminal justice, is running for Oberacker’s seat this November and was the only local official or candidate in support of the closures. She sees them as evidence that the system is working.

“I understand that when prisons close due to decreases in prison populations, that means that crime is going down and communities are safer, which is what we want to see,” she said.

Frazier said she is glad the Department of Corrections is offering the Sullivan Correctional staff the chance to work in prisons that need staff.

“Staffing shortages continue to be an issue that compromises the safety and well-being of the people who work there and the incarcerated population,” she said. “We also need to make sure that the communities where prisons have been sited are helped to transition from an incarceration economy to other economic opportunities.”

A major employer

The closures reveal just how dependent communities across New York are on prisons as major employers. 

“These men and women must now confront the hardships associated with transferring to a new job or possibly losing a job due to lack of seniority, as well as potentially uprooting their families, finding new schools for their kids, and a host of other stressful situations associated with sudden changes to their employment,” said Wayne Spence, president of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF).

He said the PEF will help any member who wants to transition to a new job in the system. Union representatives will attend meetings and talk to affected employees, he said.

Two Democrats—the retiring assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, representing New York’s 100th District, and Paula Kay, who is running for her seat—also blasted Sullivan Correctional’s impending closure.

Gunther said the impact will be “tremendous in an area where jobs are few and far between.” Sullivan Correctional’s employees “will have to leave their communities, and travel 50 miles, 80 miles, or farther.”

She said many Sullivan Correctional employees are “generational,” meaning their parents and grandparents worked at the prison. Gunther is a nurse who worked briefly in a prison, and she said she knows how difficult their work is.

Kay decried the lack of information about relocation plans. “We need to come together to find better long-term solutions to the real problems in our corrections system.”

Also running for the 100th is Republican Lou Ingrassia. “I have received numerous calls throughout the day from concerned residents, business owners and Correctional Officers who I sympathize with,” he said.

He called the closure “at best a temporary fix that ignores the root causes of the staffing crisis across the state.” If elected he said he will “keep this issue on the minds of those in the Democrat majority, including fixing every aspect of the HALT Act, ensuring corrections officers have a 20-year retirement, better pay and safe work conditions. Closing these facilities is not sustainable, it’s dangerous and is only going to get worse.”

U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-19) called the closure “disgraceful” and part of Hochul’s “pro-crime platform.” He said it threatens the community’s economic stability for no purpose. “Prison closures rarely result in savings,” he said.

In Pennsylvania in 2022, the Wayne County Commissioners decided against merging the Wayne County Correctional Facility in Honesdale with the Pike County Correctional Facility in Milford, an idea floated to save money. But despite a decreasing inmate population, given opposition from law enforcement, commissioners dropped the idea.

Law enforcement officials said the merger would prolong response times and erode “the quality of the correctional experience.” See “Wayne ditches prison merger idea.”