STATEMENT FROM ASSEMBLY MINORITY LEADER WILL BARCLAY

 “The closure of Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Franklin County and the downsizing of Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County won’t just displace the hundreds of men and women who work there—it will upend the lives of countless families that depend on them.

This is just the latest chapter in a crisis Albany has ignored for too long. Earlier this year, conditions inside our prisons were so dire that thousands of correctional officers staged walkouts just to have their voices heard. Instead of improving conditions, the result was mass firings and even fewer officers left to manage increasingly dangerous facilities.

Since the enactment of the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act (HALT), working conditions in New York’s prisons have deteriorated to a breaking point: rampant violence against both employees and inmates, an increase in illegal contraband and extreme staffing shortages. Rather than listening to the people who keep these facilities running, Albany’s ‘solution’ has been to cram violent felony offenders into tighter spaces with even fewer officers to supervise them.

Closing yet another state prison and concentrating inmates into already overburdened facilities will not fix a system that is broken—it will only make it worse. Democrats must stop ignoring this very crisis they created and start protecting the safety of its workforce, its inmates and the communities these facilities support.”