ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul is exploring constructing a brand new 3,000-bed state jail — the biggest in New York — in a baffling reverse-of-course after shuttering quite a few correctional amenities.
The state Corrections Division is searching for proposals to assemble the large proposed $750 million facility someplace within the state, in accordance with beautiful paperwork launched this week and obtained by The Publish.
“The proposed facility will embody roughly 3,000 beds, a number of new housing and help buildings, safety programs, and important web site and utility infrastructure enhancements,” the paperwork stated.
As to the place the brand new jail is likely to be positioned, the paperwork solely stated it might “require entry to transportation and different important group help companies.”
The stunning growth comes after Hochul has confronted fury from corrections officers for shuttering nearly a dozen prisons since she took workplace because the jail inhabitants declines and the state fails to retain employees.
An enormous unlawful wildcat strike by corrections employees final 12 months introduced the corrections system to its knees, requiring 1000’s of Nationwide Guardsmen to work at websites on the ongoing price of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} a month.
Some state lawmakers of either side of the political aisle stated they had been gobsmacked that Hochul is entertaining constructing a brand new facility. All of them stated they weren’t even remotely conscious of the plan and demanded solutions.
“Earlier than spending a single greenback on learning new development, the state owes taxpayers an trustworthy accounting of the correctional actual property it already owns,” stated Assemblyman Scott Grey (R-Jefferson), whose district encompasses a number of giant amenities within the North Nation.
He stated the state wants to elucidate why it’s constructing a brand new jail as an alternative of rehabbing the previous amenities it’s shuttering and whether or not a brand new “mega facility” is the precursor to extra closures and employees downsizing.
“Throughout the state, the sample is similar: amenities shut, communities lose financial exercise, and properties sit unused with no credible plan for reuse,” Grey stated in an announcement.
“The state’s observe document on that is poor, and the result’s important actual property harm in group after group.”
State Corrections Division spokesman Tom Mailey stated the research is “strictly a conceptual exploration, and no choices have been made.
“We’re within the early phases of exploring what a contemporary facility might appear like, specializing in incorporating trendy expertise and areas constructed particularly for rehabilitative and reintegrative programming,” he stated in an announcement.
“Modernizing our facility-wide expertise would enhance security for each employees and incarcerated people whereas permitting us to section out inefficient, paper-based programs.
“Past infrastructure, new amenities current a possibility to raise the work of our safety and civilian professionals and drive significant tradition change throughout the system,” Mailey stated.
Hochul rep Jess D’Amelia instructed The Publish on Friday that the research is critical to guage “the way to finest modernize an ageing jail infrastructure,” although cautioned that plans for a brand new facility are usually not ultimate.
“Governor Hochul dedicated to making sure that state prisons are as protected as attainable, which incorporates evaluating the way to finest modernize an ageing jail infrastructure — a few of which has existed for over 200 years,” D’Amelia stated.
“Whereas there are at the moment no plans to construct a brand new facility, this administration stays dedicated to exploring all avenues to boost security for all these inside our jail system.”
