PHARSALIA – In a press conference held Thursday, the New York Department of Correctional Services made it clear that come July 1, Camp Pharsalia will close.
Camp Mt. McGregor in Saratoga County and Camp Gabriels in Franklin County will also be among those minimum security prisons closed despite a personal letter from New York State Senator Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton. Libous called for additional time as mandated by state legislation passed in 2008 that required a one-year mandatory notice before closing the camp.
“We negotiated a new deal over the perilous budget that suspended the one-year requirement for this one year only, so I could close these three camps. It was suspended because of the fiscal problems facing the state,” said DOCS Commissioner Brian Fischer in the phone conference yesterday. He said that state corrections department had worked with Democratic legislators and New York Gov. David Paterson’s office in reaching a temporary agreement over suspending the law.
DOCS estimates that the closures of the camps will save taxpayers $12.3 million in 2009 and an additional $14.5 million in 2008.
“New York’s prison population has declined by 16 percent, or more than 11,500 inmates, since its peak in December 1999, and the medium and minimum security (the security levels of each of the facilities slated for closure) populations have dropped by more than 20 percent and 50 percent, respectively. The closures reflect the need to operate the prison system more efficiently statewide in response to the inmate population decline, relatively new mandates from the legislature and courts to provide additional services to sex offenders and inmates with mental illness, and New York’s multi-billion-dollar projected budget deficit,” said the agency in a statement.
Libous wrote a letter to the commissioner stating he remained against the closure of the facility, but asked for concessions from the DOCS that included a delay in the closure by two months, placing its employees on a “preferred transfer list” and compensating them for moving expenses incurred during staff transfers.
Fischer said he received Libous’ letter at the conference and dismissed its request for delayed closure.
“July first. It is going to happen,” he said.
DOCS spokesman Erik Kriss said employees were already entitled to some moving compensation under their current contract. He explained that the compensation was mainly aimed at families who would be moving their primary household to a new area.
