Prisons' future worries panel

CANTON — Members of a St. Lawrence County Legislature panel monitoring how expected budget cuts will affect state prisons say they're taking seriously rumors that north country facilities might close, despite a senator's assurances they likely will be spared.

"We survived General Motors, we're surviving Alcoa's cutbacks, but I think losing the prisons would be the straw that breaks our back," said Legislator David W. Forsythe, R-Lisbon.

Mr. Forsythe urged state elected officials at a meeting Tuesday to keep three prisons in Gouverneur and Ogdensburg open. He and Legislators Donald A. Peck, R-Gouverneur, Joseph R. Lightfoot, R-Oswegatchie, and Vernon D. "Sam" Burns, D-Ogdensburg, were appointed Dec. 14 to a subcommittee that will track how state cuts could affect the prisons.

"A lot of employees have transferred here from other prisons and have been here so long that they've bought homes," Mr. Peck said. "It would devastate Gouverneur if that facility closed. I'm sure it would be the same for other communities."

The prisons collectively employ 1,021 workers — 378 at Gouverneur Correctional Facility, 356 at Riverview Correctional Facility in Ogdensburg and 287 at Ogdensburg Correctional Facility, according to state Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman Linda M. Foglia. She said Cape Vincent and Watertown correctional facilities, the other two prisons in the Watertown hub, employ 335 and 355 workers, respectively, bringing the two-county total to 1,711.

"There are going to be cuts made, but I think they will be to the administrative side of the DOC," Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent, told legislators. "I don't see the cuts being made at the facility level."

Mr. Forsythe said Wednesday that he's not yet ready to take Mr. Aubertine's word for it.

"I'm sure they're top-heavy, administrative-wise, but I'm looking at the inmate numbers, and they're going down steadily," he said.

Department of Correctional Services reports show the inmate population dropped from 63,304 on Jan. 1, 2007, to 62,599 on Jan. 1, 2008, a decrease of 1.1 percent. The number of inmates in the Watertown hub during that period dropped from 4,028 to 3,973, a decrease of 1.4 percent.

Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, told legislators she could not guarantee that none of the region's prisons will land on a proposed closure list, but said she will fight to keep them open.

"It makes financial sense to keep them here," she said.

Johnson Newspapers writer Susan Mende contributed to this report.