The maximum security facility in Washington County is one of two prisons in the state scheduled to close in November.
By Patrick Tine, Times Union
Nearly a thousand correction officers, their families and supporters crowded a truck stop in this Washington County community Sunday to protest the planned closure of Great Meadow Correctional Facility outside the eastern edge of the Adirondack Park in Comstock.
Representatives from the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union for uniformed staff at the maximum security prison, and a number of local and state elected officials including U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, spoke for over an hour praising the officers and accusing Gov. Kathy Hochul of neglecting upstate communities that state prisons often support.
“Congratulations on your sucker punch to Washington County,” said state Sen. Dan Stec, a Republican whose district includes the prison. The state budget empowered the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to close up to five prisons this year. Last month, DOCCS announced that Great Meadow and Sullivan Correctional Facility would both close on Nov. 6.
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The state has said that staff at the prisons will be reassigned to other facilities, or to state agencies, and that no layoffs are expected. That assurance was not any comfort for the rally’s speakers or attendees. Democratic state Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner pointed out that reassignments would be based on seniority and that single-parent households or families with two parents working at the prison would be forced to take corrections jobs as far away as Wyoming County in western New York.
Stec was more blunt, questioning why guards would be willing to accept jobs hours away so that they could have “excrement thrown at them while watching the animals of society.” Stec referred to incarcerated people as “animals” twice in his remarks.
In response to Stec’s comments, TeAna Taylor, a policy director with the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, said in a statement: “Throughout history, politicians have sought to dehumanize groups of people as a distraction from their own failures of leadership. It’s as pathetic as it is dangerous and wrong.”
Addressing the closure more broadly Taylor said, “We are well aware that many prison-adjacent communities across the state shamelessly depend on mass incarceration for jobs and related economic activity. These are our loved ones — our parents, uncles, aunts, and elders. Their bodies are not your cash crop.”
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Great Meadow is one of the largest prisons in the state and has a staff of 559, with 480 incarcerated individuals. The prison can hold 1,595 inmates.
State Sen. Jake Ashby, a Republican whose 43rd district abuts the prison. called the planned closure an “assault on this community” and warned that the rural location — with the prison located about 30 minutes east of Lake George — would collapse economically if the prison was shuttered. The prison sits between Fort Ann and Whitehall off Route 4. Ashby said that there had been room for compromise between Hochul and the Republican minority in the Legislature.
Speakers also criticized the speed with which the closure would take effect. Previously, state law required the governor and commissioner of DOCCS to give at least a one-year notice to legislative leaders before closing a correctional facility. That timeline was shortened under the administration of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
State Sen. Jim Tedisco, a Republican, urged support for bills in the Assembly and Senate that would require majority votes in both chambers to close a state prison.
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The state has cited costs, a long-term decline in incarcerated people and staffing struggles as reasons for the planned closures. Assaults on prison guards and staff have increased in recent years.
Former Great Meadow corrections officer Peter Lockart, who lives in Glens Falls, said that there were roads around the prison where every single household was supported by jobs at Great Meadow.
“How about not closing any jails,” Lockart said. “How about changing the laws to start incarcerating people again and then fill up the jails. Then everybody wins.”
Stefanik, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, spoke briefly, reading from signs being held by attendees and that in moving to close Great Meadow, Hochul was “going after the backbone of correctional facilities in New York state.”
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Assemblyman Matt Simpson, a Republican from the 114th district, said he had spoken with the relative of someone from the Bronx who had completed their associate’s degree while incarcerated at Great Meadow and claimed that person did not want to see the prison close because of the programming available to prisoners. Simpson said that was “one of thousands of stories” of success at the prison.
Jared Chausow, a spokesman for Release Aging People in Prison, a leading state anti-incarceration group, said that was not the reputation Great Meadow has in his circles.
“I’ve only heard debates about whether it’s the worst (prison) or not,” he said.
At the end of the rally, an organizer invited relatives of inmates to address the crowd. No one came forward.
Top photo: Participants listen to speakers as people gathered to save the Great Meadow Correctional Facility during a rally at the Fort Ann Super Stop on Sunday Aug. 4, 2024 in Fort Ann, N.Y. Photo by Lori Van Buren/Times Union
Buffalo Bills stadium was more important than saving your jobs. Remember that in November election until the swap is em
See the population & popularity of the Bills vs the FACT that the prison can’t even be adequately staffed NOW, it is antiquated, and there is a modern and seemingly EMPTY prison directly across the street from Great Meadows (Washington Correctional). Every year the Wahingron County Board of Supervisors sends a begging request to the Governor to SEND US MORE PRISONS, meanwhile we can’t staff what we have. Locking up MORE low level criminals isn’t going to help THIS prison, since it is a max facility. Do your homework. No one is advocating to NOT lock these worst of the worst prisoners up.
Maybe #SeditiousStefaniQ should actually do her JOB and look at NY21 to see what we NEED vs spending her entire time begging for money & using OUR TIME AND DIME to campaign for her melting orange felon rapist master & his toadies. What are we paying her $175,000 a year to DO, exactly?
Wow. Guess you don’t like Trump. How do you refer to President Biden???
TeAna Taylor’s comments are
All you need to know about what NYS residents are dealing with- corrupt politicians and their mini-me lackeys. THESE are the people that release murders, rapists, thieves back into our communities to do the same things over and over.
Rinse and repeat..
This is major,there are some people,”not animals as u call them”that benefit from there incarnation bc normally they wouldn’t
of had a chance bc some people’s thinking,”such as change the laws to fill the prisons” is a win win situation, for who;them so they can live a life style of someone else’s faults,meaning u deserve not after being incarcerated, what some people don’t understand is, that before there mishap our people had lives n did whatever they had to do to maintain their lives but that be on some people’s thinking,so if your not going to reform the inmates for life outside the walls there is no need for a unlivable prison to just hold masses of people for not reason,some people want them to reunfend so they can be right back where they started n those can maintain there life’s off someone faults.
Did you make it past the 5th grade?
I worked at Downstate for 14yrs before these idiots closed thay down. The system is a complete failure in every aspect. I deeply regret taking this job. There is no hope for us as correction officers and there is no future. I used to be proud of what I did, now I’m just existing.
Ending mass incarceration is not going to be easy when so many livelihoods are at stake. Hopefully there will be counseling available to those who are no longer working in prison systems to restore their dignity as they come to grips with the corrupt penal systems they served.
Yeah right more excuses stop voting democrat they are the communist party wake up
Wow sii ok you think someone who commits a crime should not go to jail?? Am I understanding right?? How is the penal system corrupt??
NYC drops another bomb on upstate NY.
Anyone in upstate who voted for a Democrat is getting what they deserve.
Unfortunately a lot of good people get to suffer from the badly-educated, uninformed moron vote.
Hoew did NYC do this? The governor and legislature is located in Albany, well upstate.
It’s an outdated prison . The u.s. has the most incarcerated population, circumstances change, offer retraining and move on.
If you have never traveled or lived in a different country where on occasion you will see a police officer, which is most of the free world compared to New York, where the police are prevalent in society, there is a friendliness in people to genuinely show an interest and show friendliness. I note the rhetoric of corrections personnel believing it is simply a process of creating more criminals through imposing extreme limits on what is acceptable to be a citizen pursuing their dreams. The pathology of circular thinking spirals out of reason; to neglect a moral foundation would destroy us all. The fiscal problem being unsustainable. The USA has the highest prison population of any country in the world. As we erroneously attempt to dominate other resource rich regions of the world through war and covert leadership bribery our bride as a nation has plummeted in international relationships. We need to clean our own house and feel for the lone traveler by offering kindness.
Do you live in Florida William?? The defense attorney with a few lawsuits against him or his staff members??
I’ve been through 2 closures in my career in docs. When they say, “no layoffs expected”, they are correct. They don’t lay you off, you get fired. It’s what happened in my last facility. I wasn’t the only one. Closing these jails is not the answer. We need to start holding people accountable for their actions. I don’t feel sorry for people that are in prison. You chose to do the crime. Elect a different leader for our state, that’s a start.
This comment had me double checking that this wasn’t “the onion”
“How about not closing any jails,” Lockart said. “How about changing the laws to start incarcerating people again and then fill up the jails. Then everybody wins.”
Agreed. You probably are not on the correct side of history when your place of employment is “the garbage heap of the State prison system” and worse than Rikers. Unreal.
Plenty of blame to go around. There are six areas in New York State that keep the Democrats in power. They are the Rochester area, Syracuse, Ithaca area, Albany area, The Hudson valley south on both sides of the river, and NYC.
So in your fever dream we’d elect Republicans who would start “changing the laws to start incarcerating people again and then fill up the jails. Then everybody wins?” That’s your utopia? Because in reality land, that’s fascism. Do you support fascism? It’s also another form of plantation slavery. Do you support slavery?
My statements are fascist. Slavery? I simply stated a fact that these areas keep the Democrats in power in NYS. Your hatred blinds you. Come up for air, comrade.
“changing the laws to start incarcerating people again and then fill up the jails. Then everybody wins?”
This statement is fascist.
I admit, I associated this statement with yours as your implication seems to be, Democrats aren’t rounding up enough people to keep the prison industry in business. Is it not?
If one group of people (predominantly white) benefits economically from another group of people (predominantly non-white) who are held captive against their will, that is analogous with slavery. Is it not?
There are laws that need to be changed. Bail reform needs a complete overhaul. Raise the age needs to be done away with. Criminals need to be held accountable
Fascism? Slavery? My statement was about the areas in NYS that keep the Democrats in complete power. Come up for air.