Jul 01, 2019 —

A political shift, an industry in decline

When Democrats took control of the state Senate after last year's election, it changed New York politics profoundly. One of the biggest changes for the North Country could be the way Albany reshapes the state prison system.

For decades, corrections jobs counted among the highest paid and most reliable in the region. But the state's most powerful elected officials, including Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, now say that model of economic development has to change.

During Carl Heastie’s visit last week to Plattsburgh, NCPR asked him about the North Country’s prison industry – more than dozen state correctional facilities that shape the economy from Moriah and Dannemora to Ogdensburg and Watertown. 

Heastie, who represents the Bronx, quickly pushed back. “Representing a district that feeds the population of inmates, it’s a difficult for someone to say it is an economic development thing,” Heastie said. “It is very sensitive to us.”

Once a growth industry, mass incarceration has troubled legacy

During 1980s and '90s when New York was building prisons fast, different communities across the state were affected very differently. 

Here in the North Country, and across Upstate New York, correctional facilities were seen as economic engines, a way to replace closed factories or bankrupt farms.

“I’m not saying prisons are intended or should be used as an economic driver,” said state Assemblyman Billy Jones, a Democrat and former corrections officer from Chateaugay, speaking this spring.

“But I will say when the state was looking for a place for these facilities, a lot of these communities welcomed them with open arms. Now they’ve grown dependent on them. These good paying jobs that the corrections officers and the civilian employees have have reverberated through the community.”

"It's a little awkward for us..."

But in neighborhoods like the Bronx, where Heastie grew up and which he represents in the state Assembly, mass incarceration looked very different. Many people there believe the policy shattered communities, dividing families, targeting black and Hispanic offenders more aggressively.

“So we’re sensitive to the issue of the jobs,” Heastie said. “But it’s a little awkward for us to say that prisons are economic development.”

Heastie’s views on state prisons matter because he’s now one of the most powerful politicians in Albany. In the past, Republicans like state Senator Betty Little from Queensbury were able to defend the importance of keeping correctional facilities open. 

“It has a huge effect on the community,” Little told NCPR last winter. “From the amount of activity, the amount of people stopping at a store, buying gas, looking at houses and property in the area. You look at Lyon Mountain, it’s just really affected when they closed that prison [in 2011].” 

Thirteen state prisons have closed already and the inmate population is still shrinking

But last year, Republicans lost control of the state Senate. That represents a profound shift. The new Senate Majority leader Andrea Stewart Cousins has also voiced deep reservations about the scale of New York’s prison system.

Already since 2011, Governor Cuomo has closed thirteen state correctional facilities, two more this year. Speaking in Plattsburgh, Heastie agreed with Cuomo’s downsizing, arguing the system should shrink to reflect the number of inmates behind bars.

“If the prison population is decreasing based on the different criminal justice reforms and things like that, I think we have to figure out other ways [to create jobs],” Heastie said.

“We don’t want the economy of Upstate New York to fail. But we don’t want the economy to succeed just by keeping people in prison.”

The number of state inmates has plummeted over the last two decades, because of different sentencing policies, criminal justice reform, and because of lower crime rates. The prison population is down by nearly 26,000 men and women since 1999 and the decline appears to be accelerating. 

That means there are now already roughly 3,000 fewer corrections officer jobs. And it could mean more towns like Chateaugay, Lyon Mountain and Gabriels facing a future without a local prison.