New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) president Chris Summers denounced the plans by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to close Great Meadow and Sullivan Correctional Facilities amidst record levels of violence and staffing shortages that continue to plague state facilities. 

Both facilities will close in 90 days.

“We express frustration and continued disappointment that the state believes closing prisons will remedy significant staffing deficits and reduce historic levels of violence—and that it waited a year to make its announcement, further subjecting our members and their families to additional hardships,” Summers said. 

“In the past year, staffing levels among officers and sergeants have decreased by over 1,600, while the prison population has increased by over 2,000 inmates. It is a formula that has led to increased attacks on staff and created unsafe working conditions. 

“For years, we have demanded that DOCCS and the state take decisive action to increase staffing in our prison system. The goal was always straightforward: recruit more qualified candidates and retain officers to stabilize staffing. 

“For the past decade, we have seen round after round of prison closures that have failed to fix the long-term problem,” Summers said. “Our members work tirelessly to provide an increasingly program-focused prison environment for incarcerated individuals as a result of the disastrous HALT Act. Additional programs require more staff, but recruitment of new officers has lagged significantly and officers eligible to retire are walking out the door in droves as a result of dangerous working conditions and mandated overtime. As a result of staffing shortages and mandatory overtime, members spend more time working in the prison than they do with their families and their quality of life suffers as a result.

“Redistributing staff through prison closures will accomplish the same thing it has always accomplished: a short-term staffing boost to a handful of facilities with little to no long-term relief. 

“The State of New York needs to take bold and creative action to fix the staffing issue that is creating low morale and pushing members to their limits. Closing prisons and expecting different results certainly is not bold and creative, it is shortsighted,” Summers said.

NYSCOPBA will ensure that proper reduction in force protocols are followed and assist members in getting the needed information to potentially make life-changing decisions for members of those two facilities. This is a lengthy process, but it happens quickly, and our members have lives and families that come before the job. 

Their lives are now further complicated by this late announcement because they will have to consider moving closer to their new prison, which requires uprooting their families on the eve of a new school year in September. 

It would serve the State of New York well to remember that our members have families, and they pay the price for these poor decisions. 

NYSCOPBA, based in Albany, NY, represents 26,000 employees and retirees from the Security Services Unit. Learn more about the union at www.nyscopba.org.