Two Republican lawmakers are calling on the state Department of Corrections to rethink Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to shutter Butler Correctional Facility in Red Creek, Wayne County.
The facility is one of four slated to close next July in the latest round of consolidation in the state’s prison system.
State Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, and Assemblyman Robert C. Oaks, R-Macedon, Wayne County, released a joint statement that said they strongly oppose the plan and argued that the negative impact on correction officers and the community would outweigh potential cost savings.
The legislators said they had shared their concerns with Donn Rowe, president of the state Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, and are joined in opposition to the closure by the Wayne County Board of Supervisors.
“For a community the size of Butler, the loss of its largest employer will have a devastating effect on the local economy,” the statement said. “From a cost saving perspective, it makes little sense since the state will ultimately be responsible for continued maintenance of the facility and for contracts for water and sewer services that extend into 2026.”
In July, the Department of Corrections said setting the closing date a year away would allow for a gradual transition and give affected employees more options to find new positions. Prisoners would transfer to other facilities.
The state’s overall prison population has declined about 24 percent since 1999, according to the Department of Corrections. Butler is a medium-security facility for men. As of July 22, it had 130 staff and 177 inmates, with a maximum capacity of 240.
Editor's note:
The United States incarcerates more of its citizens per capita than any country in the world and among the states, New York, was a leader for many years because of the Rockefeller Drug Laws which swelled the New York State prison system until the late 90s when the legislators started to realize that New Yorkers cannot incarcerate away their social problems at the cost of $60,000.00 per year per inmate. New York has been leading the way with closing some its prisons and shrinking the number of its citizens incarcerated although that number is still about 55,000 in 58 facilities across the state. There are better ways to deal with the problems that lead a citizen to incarceration.
Having said all this, it has been cynically said, the the New York State prison system is mainly a jobs program for rural folks catered to by their legislative representatives with pork barrel politics of bringing home the bacon in the form of lower middle class jobs for rural working class constituents. This point is exemplified this week with State Senator Nozolio and and Assemblyman Oaks criticizing the scheduled closing of Butler Correctional Facility in Red Creek, Wayne County. Butler has only 177 inmates with 130 staff.
The closing of Butler is a good move which will save New York Taxpayers millions of dollars. I understand that Nozzolio and Oaks are looking out for the employees in the Red Creek area, but keeping the prison open just as a jobs program for union employees makes no sense, and citizens should not support Nozzolio and Oak's poor public policy position.
One of the biggest employers in Orleans County are Albion and Orleans Correctional Facilities in Albion, NY.
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