Plan to close prisons rankles some
Populations an economic lifeline for rural regions
NORWICH, N.Y. - On most mornings here, for about as long as anyone can remember, a green minibus has arrived from the outskirts of town and discharged a crew of young men in look-alike gear: green pants and green or red sweat shirts.
They rake leaves in the fall and shovel snow in the winter. They paint buildings and clean up debris. They helped put a roof on the county courthouse.
The work crews are inmates from the nearby Camp Pharsalia, a minimum-security state prison tucked into a hillside a dozen miles outside town. For the City of Norwich, like other rural Upstate New York communities, the 110-inmate Pharsalia and other prison camps have become something of an economic lifeline, for decades providing not just labor but also jobs, in a region where work is hard to come by.
But with most governors and Legislatures grappling with crushing budget deficits, what's good for rural economies is often proving bad for states.
New York is facing a $13 billion deficit and a falling inmate population, and Governor David A. Paterson has proposed saving about $26 million by closing four of the state's prison facilities, including Camp Pharsalia and nearby Camp Georgetown. Faced with the prospect of losing a big part of their economic base, small, distressed towns and cities are banding together with a common cry: "Save Our Prison!"
"This is a major impact on a small community," said Paul Lashway, a Norwich resident and prison guard at Camp Pharsalia for the past 10 years. He is also a steward for the local correctional officers' union.
The prison union is leading an effort that includes lobbying at the Legislature in Albany, direct mailing, and radio ads in the affected communities.
It's a conflict being played out across the country. The number of inmates boomed in the 1980s and 1990s, in part because of high crime rates and stiff mandatory sentencing laws that particularly targeted drug offenders. States rushed to build additional prisons to keep up with what appeared to be a growth industry. And many struggling, mostly rural, communities came to see prisons as a substitute for the family farms and the small manufacturing plants that were vanishing.
The United States has the dubious distinction of being the country with the highest percentage of its citizens behind bars, more than 1 in 100, or 2.3 million people, according to the Pew Center on the States.
But crime rates have dropped sharply over the past two decades, and almost all states are facing budget deficits. Study after study has shown that giving nonviolent drug offenders treatment, instead of jail time, is far more effective at preventing repeat abuses. And it costs much more to keep a person incarcerated than to supervise him or her on probation.
As crime has receded as a major issue among voters, many state Legislatures, including the one in New York, are looking at rolling back mandatory drug sentencing laws. Some states, such as New Jersey, are experimenting with special "drug courts" for first-time offenders. Others, such as Rhode Island, have expanded "good time" early release programs or are allowing some prisoners to serve a portion of their sentences at home.
Some involved in the prison industry, as well as some in law enforcement, say this is the wrong time to be rolling back sentencing laws and closing prisons. "You know what happens in a recession," Lashway said. "Crime goes up." And what is heralded by most as good news - declining prison populations - is being greeted with a sense of foreboding in places where prisons have become big business.
Mayor Joseph P. Maiurano of Norwich has calculated the cost for his city and for surrounding Chenango County, one of New York's poorest: Fifty-nine corrections officers, and their family members, may have to leave the area for jobs in other facilities. About 40 local businesses will lose funds from sales to the prisons. More than 50 local organizations benefit from the work the inmates provide.
Some researchers dispute whether correctional facilities serve a long-term economic benefit. Gregory M. Hooks, a sociology professor at Washington State University who has analyzed the economies of prisons, said that among other problems, the pool of free inmate labor eliminates the pool of low-paid manual labor jobs, further depressing local economies. 