Adirondack communities await fate of 3 closed prisons as legislative session ends without action
By Gwendolyn Craig
Lawmakers left Albany last week without a solution for three closed North Country prisons–including one 92-acre complex vacant and deteriorating for more than a decade–after some say the governor’s freeze on New York City congestion pricing left little oxygen for addressing the matter and caused tension between the Legislature and the governor.
Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, said the governor pulling her support for congestion pricing — which would have required fees to drive into Manhattan — didn’t help, though the executive and the Assembly still appeared “pretty far apart” on a resolution involving the prisons.
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“We tried,” Bauer said. “We were making some progress, but we ran out of time.”
If lawmakers do return to Albany later this year and take action, the three prisons could be barred from private development under the rules of the forest preserve until at least the end of 2027. The Legislature scheduled its 2024 session to conclude as of last week, but it could be called back by its leaders or the governor and some think that is likely.
“I’m obviously very disappointed that we didn’t see that resolution come to the floor,” said state Assemblyman Matthew Simpson, R-Lake George. “If there’s any glimmer, any bright spot, we do have to go back. I would love to see this resolution go forward.”
State Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, said he and others continue to work on the issue, with the hope of addressing it if lawmakers come back to Albany.
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A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Monday that the governor “will continue to work to ensure this land can be appropriately utilized to meet the needs of New Yorkers.”
It’s unclear exactly when and if lawmakers will go back to resolve unfinished business, but there are rumblings of resuming session after the primaries are over, perhaps in July.
Delays for prison legislation
On June 4, a Hochul spokesperson said the “administration is actively working with the Legislature to develop a path forward,” addressing the former Mount McGregor Correctional Facility in Saratoga County, Camp Gabriels Correctional Facility in Franklin County and Moriah Shock Incarceration Facility in Essex County.
“Closed prisons are currently sitting unused in and around the Adirondack Park, and Governor Hochul is committed to repurposing the land to help communities meet the needs of their residents,” the spokesperson added.
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A day later, Hochul announced she was ordering the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City to put an “indefinite pause” on congestion pricing. It would have implemented a $15 fee on cars entering midtown and below, Hochul said, and it was to start on June 30.
The approximately $1 billion in revenue the program was expected to generate was to fund a number of MTA projects. Environmental advocates had touted the program as an important measure for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging more use of public transit.
John Sheehan, a spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said his group was disappointed that time ran out for the prison initiative.
“We were expecting to see language from the governor’s office,” Sheehan said. “We know they were working on it, but we never got a piece of paper. We can only speculate on what slowed them down.”
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State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, did not respond to the Explorer’s request for comment on Monday. In a statement on Friday, he blamed Hochul’s congestion pricing announcement as the reason for no resolution on the North Country prisons.
The McGregor prison is in Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner’s district. The Democrat from Round Lake also did not respond to the Explorer last week and on Monday.
Prison constitutional amendments
This legislative session was crucial.
Closed Forest Preserve County Prisons
- Camp Gabriels, 92 acres, closed in 2009.
- Mount McGregor, 53 acres, closed in 2014.
- Moriah Shock, 60 acres, closed in 2022.
All three prisons are on lands zoned state administrative, meaning they cannot be used for anything other than state purposes. If there is no state use, the lands revert to the forest preserve. The state Constitution prevents the sale or lease of the forest preserve, thus a constitutional amendment for any variances is needed.
To adopt a constitutional amendment, two separately elected state Legislatures must pass resolutions first. Then, the amendment goes to a statewide vote. If a constitutional amendment were to pass this year, it could be passed by the next elected state Legislature in 2025 and potentially come before voters in November 2025.
If first passage does not happen this year, a referendum would be put off until at least November 2027.
No constitutional amendment was ever proposed and sponsored for the three prisons, though multiple Adirondack Park-area groups called for one. Protect the Adirondacks, Bauer said, had been advocating for one since the end of last year. It was only in the last couple of weeks when Hochul’s administration embraced the concept, he said, that it started to gain traction.
Last week, the Explorer learned a deal was near. A legislative source indicated a “governor’s program bill,” which would have packaged all three prisons in a constitutional amendment, could be introduced.
But Bauer said Assembly leadership was still uncomfortable that the amendment would involve selling forest preserve lands. They were also uncomfortable not knowing what kind of development would occur once the lands were privatized.
During an Adirondack Explorer legislative event in Albany, state Assemblymember Deborah Glick, D-Manhattan, chair of the environmental conservation committee, expressed reservations about the constitutional amendments. She commented that the state could lose control of the property and suggested an Amazon warehouse could move into the Adirondacks.
Bauer said Protect the Adirondacks and others don’t believe that could happen.
Even after lands are removed from the forest preserve, the Adirondack Park Agency would have to classify them, dictating the amount and kinds of development appropriate. That involves public comment opportunities and public hearings. And after that, any new land use would require APA permits.
Gerald Delaney, executive director of the Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board, said state leaders should recognize that the purpose of the state purchasing the prison land in the first place was to boost the economy of Adirondack Park communities and fill a state government need.
“It would benefit the park if our leaders could all come around the idea that an economic benefit is a public benefit, whether it be in public or private hands,” Delaney said.
Others in the Legislature, Bauer said, suggested the prison complexes revert to forest preserve. The buildings would be razed and trees would be planted.
“That would cost tens of millions of dollars,” Bauer said. “Nobody during the state budget has proposed or will propose anything like that, so that’s not a realistic option. And the local communities think that there are viable uses for those facilities.”
The amount of acreage in exchange for making the prisons available for private use was also not finalized. The state Department of Environmental Conservation had suggested putting 1,100 acres back into the forest preserve in exchange for the approximately 230 acres of former prisons, Bauer said. Protect the Adirondacks advocated for 2,500 acres to match a constitutional amendment that received first passage last year retroactively legalizing the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Complex in Essex County.
Camp Gabriels
A separate measure for a constitutional amendment for reuse of Camp Gabriels is also in limbo. Gabriels is a deteriorating 92-acre prison complex closed in 2009 in the town of Brighton. Stec sponsored the bill, and it passed the Senate. It never passed the Assembly.
“It’s almost certain that the Legislature will reconvene sometime this year to fix the governor and downstate Democrats’ MTA boondoggle,” Stec said in a press release. “At that time, the Assembly should do the right thing and pass the Camp Gabriels amendment for the first time. That way, we can move one step closer to finding a new use for the facility that helps it become an economic driver, rather than blight. Or, the Legislature should take up the three-prison amendment the governor’s office has proposed, but not submitted. If neither of these needed options come to fruition, the governor and Assembly Democrat leaders owe the North Country an explanation as to why they refuse to move forward with these or any substantive prison reuse plan.”
Jones said at this point, there is “more motivation to get a three-prison amendment.”
“It’s important that we solve these long-standing issues, and especially Camp Gabriels, after all these years,” Simpson said.
Top photo: Camp Gabriels with Sable and Loon Lake Mountains in the distance. Photo by Tom French
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All amendments to the NYS Constitution, including amendments to Art. 14, “forever wild” clause, should follow a careful, deliberative process and that includes text of the amendment in draft form to review and meetings with legislators to discuss. The former Camp Gabriels prison amendment has been kicking around for years, as Sen. Stec knows, and been subject to many drafts and much discussion over 12 years. That is where the focus should be – to get that one through the legislative process and to the people for a vote. On the other hand, the “three prisons in one” constitutional amendment discussed in this article was brought up at the last moment, was never in bill form, and therefore was never read carefully by Adirondack stakeholders like us and the Attorney General’s office. Trying to rush an amendment that has not been reviewed through at the last moment is entirely the wrong way to go about amending the Constitution.
Don’t count on New York doing anything with these properties except to let the assets on them collapse and go to seed. The government of New York State is good at wasting taxpayer monies and that’s why so many people (like me) and businesses are voting with their feet and leaving, taking their financial and intellectual capital with them.