Six NY prisons to close, including Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill
On Monday The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) announced that six prisons across the state will officially close on March 10, 2022. This includes the maximum security Downstate Correctional Facility, located in the Dutchess County Town of Fishkill.
Downstate Correctional Facility is the largest of the six to close. It has a current staff of 644, with 688 incarcerated individuals and a capacity of 1,221. The other five facilities slated for closure include Ogdensburg Correctional Facility, Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional facility, The Willard Drug Treatment Campus, Southport Correctional Facility and Rochester Correctional Facility. Some are operating at less than half capacity, and all have prison populations below 1,000 people.
The decision to close the six facilities comes as the incarcerated population in New York continues to decline.
As of Monday, Nov. 8, the total incarcerated population across the state is 31,469. According to a press release from DOCCS, this represents both a total reduction in excess of 12,700 individuals since Jan. 1, 2020, and the lowest total incarcerated population in New York State prisons since 1984. It also is a more than 50 percent decline in prison population since the department’s peak in 1999.
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/6-NY-prisons-close-Downstate-Correctional-Facility-16603441.php
(Albany Times Union)