High Cost of Underused Prisons

MYFOXNY.COM - It does seem New York taxpayers are "sentenced to pay." Our investigation found that when prison officials try to save money by closing prisons, they often find themselves fighting political interests.

Hudson Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Columbia County, feels like a ghost town: silence in the corridors, not a soul around, in room after room we saw the same thing -- empty bed after empty bed, after bed empty bed.

The good news is that this is a New York state prison and there aren't enough medium-security criminals to fill it. The Corrections Department consolidated, moved some prisoners elsewhere, and shut down Building 201 and Cottage 1A to reduce costs. But the bad news is as long as the prison remains open, the empty rooms cost you money.

Some of these dorms have been closed for more than a year and half, but the state still has to pay to keep them heated and maintained. Electricity still flows here and taxpayers foot the bill.

Two years ago Correctional Commissioner Brian Fisher tried close Hudson and other prisons to pare down his $3 billion budget.

"We've advocated in the past two and half years to close prisons that we could afford to give up," Fisher said.

Hudson has only 265 full time inmates. But it has 229 employees. And five staffers each made over $120,000 in 2009 because of overtime.

The commissioner thinks he could save $15 million a year by closing it and $35 million over five years because the state wouldn't have to fix-up and maintain the prison.

"The way to save real money is close entire facilities," he said.

But Columbia County Supervisor Roy Brown said he "fought like hell to keep it open."

He and others say the town of Hudson and Columbia County (just two hours from New York City) need the jobs and the prison workers.

"Columbia County just can't afford to take a hit with that many employees leaving the area," Brown said.

Hudson is a nice place. The town sits on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River. It has spectacular views of the Catskills. But scenery didn't stop employers, manufacturing plants, from shutting down.

Recently the beauty has attracted new people from the city. They're fixing up houses and opening shops that draw tourists.

"So it's important for us to have a vibrant business base and continue to give people a reason to come to Hudson and Columbia County," said David Colby, the president of the Chamber of Commerce.

A vibrant business base means regulars, locals who spend in the town every day. And they need jobs to do that. With a median income of $35,000 a year, Columbia County long-time locals often scramble for jobs.

Small businesses count on prison employees. So although there are empty beds, and tens of millions of tax dollars could be saved local officials pressured state politicians to keep the prison open.

"I don't think in an election year right now anyone would say that we should close this prison,"

Right now Hudson is off the closing list. Jobs remain, and so do the costs. Fox 5 asked County Supervisor Brown if it is odd that payers are subsidizing these jobs in a prison that is under-utilized.

"It may be a little odd," Brown said. "But some of the benefactors are the people who live here."

There are no apologies because the community is protecting its own. And this isn't the only community that's fought to keep a prison open. This year the commissioner wanted to close four upstate prisons and was only able to close one and half because of political pressure.