Pubdate: Thu, 16 Nov 2000
Source: Poughkeepsie Journal (NY)
Copyright: 2001 Poughkeepsie Journal
Contact:  PO Box 1231 Poughkeepsie, NY 12602
Fax: (845) 437-4921
Feedback: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/news/forms/letter_form.htm
Website: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/
Author: Mary Beth Pfeiffer, Poughkeepsie Journal
Note: Part 2b of a 3 part series

The Prison Explosion, Part 2b

STATE HAS ECONOMIC STAKE IN NEW PRISONS

In 1988, New York state spent twice as much on higher education as it did 
on prisons -- a difference of more than $1 billion.

Last year, it spent $100 million more on prisons than on higher education.

The tally: prisons up $780 million; colleges down $580 million.

Critics of the state's prison buildup fear that a new "prison industrial 
complex" -- employing 32,500 statewide, operating 71 facilities and 
spending $2.2 billion annually -- has become an integral part of the 
state's economy.

"You won't get anybody saying, 'We gotta keep these drug laws in place 
because it helps our economy,' '' said former State Sen. John Dunne, who 
wants to repeal the so-called Rockefeller drug laws that have sent 
thousands to prison. "But when you scratch below the surface, you find the 
almighty dollar."

Union officers, legislators and others say prison expansion has been driven 
not by dollars but need.

"I'd be a fool to say it's not a business,'' said Dennis Fitzpatrick, 
public relations director for the correction officers union. 
"Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil."

State Senate Corrections Committee Chairman Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Seneca 
County, maintains new prisons were desperately needed to ease overcrowding 
that had created ''extreme tensions.''

''If those critics want to see those pre-Attica conditions exist, they only 
need to continue harping away at prison expansion,'' he said, referring to 
the state prison that was taken over by inmates in 1971.

Money influence debated

The notion that a concerted effort to keep prisons full even when crime 
drops particularly irks policymakers and criminal justice officials.

"Totally preposterous," was how Katherine Lapp, the state's director of 
criminal justice, characterized it.

But family members of inmates, reform advocates and prisoners rights groups 
assert the role of prisons has grown so large that vested interests 
invariably will begin to influence policy, if only subtly.

For example, the correction officers union has become a significant 
lobbying force; it gave $25,000 to a Senate Republican committee and 
$16,000 to an Assembly Democratic committee this year. Fitzpatrick said the 
money is meant to support issues pertaining to job safety, including 
officer training.

"Some people have argued it's become a jobs program for upstate counties," 
said Thomas Terlizzi, executive director of Prisoners Legal Services. 
"There are certainly elements to make that argument." Among them, he said, 
is the continuing tough talk on sentencing even when crime drops. Gov. 
George Pataki now wants to eliminate parole for nonviolent offenders, as he 
has for violent offenders.

Prison dollars have 'appeal'

In many upstate counties, prisons have become a lucrative and sought-after 
vehicle for economic development. Since 1982, all 38 new prisons were built 
in upstate communities, where land is plentiful and jobs short.

"Prison dollars have a strong appeal,'' stated a report by the City 
Project, a policy research organization based in New York City. "These job 
development benefits are well-known to government officials."

The incarceration buildup of the 1980s was meant to address what one 
expert, Todd Gaziano of the Heritage Foundation, called a ''very severe 
underincarceration problem'' that was forcing states to release violent 
felons early. New York is still considered overcrowded -- about 27 percent 
of inmates share single cells -- but many argue it is not because of too 
little prison space but overly harsh drug and sentencing laws.

Even the state Department of Correctional Services touted the benefits of 
its newest prison, Five Points.

"The Seneca County area, in particular, will reap substantial economic 
benefits as a result of the new facility," an in-house newsletter stated, 
pointing to its $25 million payroll and $3 million in secondary jobs.

Coxsackie Mayor Henry Rausch said the two prisons in his town are big 
economic engines, providing 1,000 jobs and ancillary business and housing 
benefits.

''They are fighting tooth and nail upstate for prisons. ... It's a clean 
industry. They're very good jobs. The benefits are second to none," he said.

"Basically we're cash cows," said ex-inmate Ray Rios, repeating a common 
theme among inmates. "That's the sad reality of it."

Where the state's newest prisons have been built show just how desirable 
they are. The last five facilities were opened in districts represented by 
three powerful Republican senators: Corrections Chairman Nozzolio (two), 
who represents the Finger Lakes region; Codes Committee Chairman Dale 
Volker (two), who hails from Erie County; and Finance Committee Chairman 
Ronald Stafford (one) of Plattsburgh.

Nozzolio said the latest prison built ''is an important part of our efforts 
to redevelop and revitalize the Seneca Army Depot," which had been a major 
employer before closing.

Asked the City Project report: "Has the opportunity for job development 
blocked movement to change the sentencing laws responsible for sending 
thousands of minor offenders to prison?''

Budget cutback elsewhere

That's an open question. But the soaring budget for incarceration 
invariably means something else in the state budget has to give.

"The dramatic rise in funding for prison expansion has come at the expense 
of worthwhile social programs like higher education,'' reported the Justice 
Policy Institute and Correctional Association of New York, prison reform 
organizations, in a 1998 study of spending on higher education versus 
prison funding.

As a result of the higher education cuts, tuition hikes have put higher 
education out of reach for many minorities, the report said. For African 
Americans, a year's tuition cost 24 percent of median family income in 
1988; it was 42 percent in 1997.

At the same time, the report noted, the number of blacks and Latinos sent 
to prison for drug offenses rose more than 1,000 percent from 1980 to 1997; 
for whites, the increase was 93 percent.

"For white youth, 'going upstate' probably means attending one of the dozen 
good SUNY schools in the region," the report said. "For black and Hispanic 
youth, the term more likely refers to a trip to one of the state's shiny 
new prisons."