By Karen Dewitt
WXXI News
NEW YORK — Correction officers say they are still in “shock”, that late on a July Friday, with very little advance warning, Governor Cuomo’s prison agency announced the closure of four prisons within the next year. And they are asking the legislature to rescind the closures.
Normally, when a governor wants to close a prison or any other state run facility, he proposes the change in his state budget plan in January. Then, the legislature either agrees or disagrees, and a final decision to close or to keep the facility is made in the completed state spending plan.
But Governor Cuomo’s Department of Corrections decided, on a slow summer Friday afternoon, five weeks after the legislative session ended, to announce that four prisons would be shuttered by July 26th, 2014, citing a declining inmate population.
The President of the union that represents prison guards, Donn Rowe, says he was stunned when he first received word early on Friday morning.
“Obviously, myself and my members were shocked,” Rowe said.
Full story: Prison Guard Union Still Smarting Over Closure Announcement