PRESS RELEASE
March 31, 2008

Legislators Applaud News that Local Prisons Will Stay Open

Members of the majority of the Rensselaer County Legislature applauded a decision by state leaders to keep two area state prisons open, saying they are hopeful a county request to use the prison for overflows in the prisoner population can now be seriously considered.

Legislative leaders announced today the prisons, including Mt. McGregor in Saratoga County and Hudson Correctional in Columbia County, will remain open along with two other medium-security prisons.

The majority had proposed in January an idea to have the Hudson and Mt. McGregor prisons remain open to allow for county prisoners in the region to be temporarily boarded at the facilities. Legislators and other local elected officials in the region had protested the closings, noting the state was closing prisons at a time when counties were being forced to construct new prisons or expensive additions.

“This is very welcome news and we thank legislative leaders and Governor Paterson for their efforts in keeping these prisons open. There are a number of Rensselaer County residents who work at these facilities, so they will definitely be happy by this,” said Legislator Mike Stammel, chairman of the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee.

The state had originally announced the closing of the Hudson and Mt. McGregor prisons would save $60 million. By comparison, the expansion of just the Rensselaer County Jail will cost $50 million. Legislators said they were concerned the closure of the state prisons would lead to future over-crowding issues in county facilities.

“We support keeping these prisons open, in part because a reduction of the state’s capacity can lead to over-crowding in county facilities. Taking these prisons off-line could have definitely lead to problems down the road,” said Vice Chairman of the Legislature Thomas Walsh Sr.

Legislator Martin Reid had represented the majority earlier this month at a rally earlier this month in Hudson in support of keeping the prisons open. Reid said there was considerable grassroots support for keeping the facilities open and bi-partisan support in the County Legislature for keeping the prisons open and to explore utilizing them for overflows in the county prisoner population.

“Allowing counties to temporarily board prisoners at these two facilities would help reduce costs regionally for boarding out prisoners. It’s still an idea worth exploring if there is adequate space at these two prisons,” said Reid.

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