PHARSALIA – The battle to keep the minimum security prison camps in Pharsalia and Georgetown from being closed in the sweeping state budget cuts has gained the support of some local municipalities.

The Village of Greene, among others in the area, has drafted a letter detailing the services that work crews from the camp provide and the cost spared to local taxpayers.

“In the past, the village has been fortunate enough to have inmate work crews from Camp Pharsalia provided much-needed service,” said Greene Mayor Marcia E. Miller in the statement.

Miller said the village had benefited from the prison work crews “for approximately the past 20 years.” According to Miller, crews come to the village at various points in the year to do maintenance jobs such as raking leaves, cleaning up after special events and keeping the sidewalks clear of debris.

The statement also reports that inmate work crews help at Greene’s United Methodist Church. The mayor estimated the amount of labor provided by Camp Pharsalia work crews saves village residents as much as $5,000 annually.

The New York State Department of Correctional Services estimates the closure of Pharsalia and Georgetown, along with the two other camps, will save the state $26 million in the 2009-2010 budget and $29 million more in the projected 2010-2011 fiscal year.

Camp Pharsalia, located in Chenango County, is a minimum-security facility with 84 full-time equivalent employees.

Gov. David Paterson’s proposed the closing of the four camps as part of his 2009-10 state budget. This is the second time since November that the governor has aimed to cut back at the minimum security facility, which state officials claim is below 50 percent capacity and needs to be consolidated into other facilities.

“No one should be misled into thinking things are not going to change because they’re going to have to,” said Erik Kriss, a spokesman for DCS.

Kriss said that the fiscal crisis facing the state made it inevitable for services to be reduced and that the DCS was just one agency affected by the economic downturn.

“We have fewer and fewer inmates that are eligible for work crew programs. The legislature made a conscious decision, years ago, to find alternatives to incarceration with lower level, non-violent offenders. I’m sure most municipalities would agree they don’t want violent felons on their streets and the cost of supervising them would exceed the benefit,” said Kriss.

He explained as New York’s prisons came under increasing pressure to save costs, the pool for inmates eligible for the programs would continue to shrink. He said other medium security prisons in the area may be able to supplement the loss from the Pharsalia camp, but also said they were facing cut backs, too.