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By ANDREA VanVALKENBURG
PLATTSBURGH — In the latest effort to adjust to a declining inmate population, the state plans to close 22 housing units statewide, including some in this area.
Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Erik Kriss said the plan is to save taxpayers money without resulting in job losses or transfers, though the move will make it more difficult for officers to transfer into certain facilities.
"The idea here is that there will be less overtime because we won't have to assign officers to cover these housing units because we're going to be closing or vacating them," Kriss said Tuesday.
"There won't be any job losses; we just won't be filling the vacancies there."
Some staff may be reassigned within their current facility to accommodate vacancies.
The targeted housing units are inside 17 facilities, including Adirondack Correctional in Ray Brook in Essex County, Altona Correctional in Clinton County and the Bare Hill and Franklin facilities, both in Malone in Franklin County.
At Adirondack, one unit will be vacated, eliminating 41 beds and reducing the staffing level by five positions.
Altona will see the loss of one unit, which affects 60 beds and five staff positions.
The same is planned for Bare Hill.
Two units at Franklin are now slated to be closed, affecting 120 beds and 10 staff positions.
Overall, officials say, the move will leave a total of 149 officer positions temporarily unfilled while reducing the number of general-confinement beds by 1,023.
Kriss said the "overriding objective here is to bring the size of the (prison system) more into correlation with the number of inmates, which continues to decline.
"Taxpayers should not be paying for space we don't need."
Just the unfilled officer positions, not counting the cost of benefits, is expected to save $8.4 million.
In the last decade, officials say, the inmate population has dropped almost 20 percent, with another 4-percent reduction last year alone.
Kriss said the vacant units will remain at each facility, in case the inmate population spikes in the future.
DOCS is also planning to remove 77 beds from Clinton Correctional Facility "in the coming months" to provide space for an enhanced Intermediate Care Program.
Lyon Mountain Correctional and Moriah Shock Incarceration are still slated to close in 2011.
E-mail Andrea VanValkenburg at: avanvalkenburg@pressrepublican.com
