Hochul administration to close two prisons including Great Meadow in Washington County

Bordering the Adirondack Park, Comstock acreage could be added to the forest preserve

By Gwendolyn Craig

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration on Thursday announced the upcoming closure of two prisons, including one just outside the Adirondack Park, Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Comstock in Washington County.

It will close on Nov. 6 as will Sullivan Correctional Facility, another maximum-security prison in Sullivan County.

As it relocates hundreds of employees and 900 prisoners, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision hinted more closures could be coming.

The announcement comes after the state closed Moriah Shock Incarceration Facility in Essex County in 2022, and Camp Gabriels Correctional Facility in Franklin County in 2009. It leaves two prisons in the park, one state and one federal, in Ray Brook in Essex County, though the Hochul administration has said it could close up to five prisons this fiscal year.

A map of closed and to-be-closed state prisons in Adirondack Park forest preserve counties.

DOCCS said the 559 staff at Great Meadow and the 371 staff at Sullivan Correctional will be offered positions at other facilities and no lay-offs are expected. 

A DOCCS spokesman declined to say if the prison in Ray Brook would be accepting inmates except to say that “the Department will be able to safely absorb the incarcerated population into vacant beds available at other institutions.” 

It’s also unclear if staff will relocate to Ray Brook or if additional prison closures will be announced. “If we do not see an increase in recruitment, it may be necessary to consider additional closures within the fiscal year,” DOCCS said.

Part of the state’s 2024-2025 budget included the possibility of Hochul closing up to five prisons with 90 days notice. 

DOCCS said it reviewed prison populations, infrastructure, programming, security level and facilities with others “in the area to minimize the impact to staff, and areas of the state where prior closures have occurred in order to minimize the impact to communities.”

Adirondack Park-area politicians were critical of the announcement.

State Assemblyman Matthew Simpson, R-Lake George, said he was dismayed by the timing “in the midst of severe summer storms and power outages with no post-closure plans for potential disruptions to local economies or the families that will be uprooted.” 

State Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, a former North Country corrections officer, said he sympathizes with the workers and communities affected by the closures.

“Obviously, there is a sense of relief from the people who are employed by correctional facilities and the communities that could have been impacted in my district that there were no closures in Clinton, Essex or Franklin Counties,” he said.

DOCCS said the closure decision was difficult.

“Across the country, correctional agencies continue to struggle to meet staffing demands, and the Department is no exception, despite new and aggressive recruitment efforts,” the department said. “The closure of the two facilities will help ensure the safe and efficient operation of the system by utilizing staff more effectively, and operating programs in a safe manner. The decision to close only two facilities was purposefully made to minimize the effect on staff, and at the same time attempt to close the gap on staffing shortages in our correctional facilities.”

Great Meadow Correctional Facility, which specializes in counseling prisoners with behavioral and mental health problems, currently houses 480 inmates, with a capacity to hold 1,595. Sullivan, with a capacity of 580, will be dispersing 426 inmates.

As of Thursday, the state’s 44 prisons housed 33,419 inmates, a 54% decline in population since 1999, according to DOCCS. 

New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union representing corrections officers, denounced the prison closure plans. Chris Summers, the union’s president, said the state has failed to fix the greater problem of recruitment. 

“Redistributing staff through prison closures will accomplish the same thing it has always accomplished: a short-term staffing boost to a handful of facilities with little to no long-term relief,” he said in a statement. “The State of New York needs to take bold and creative action to fix the staffing issue that is creating low morale and pushing members to their limits. Closing prisons and expecting different results certainly is not bold and creative, it is shortsighted.”

Summers was also critical of the timing of the closure, noting some families may have to uproot to a new prison before schools start in September.

The number of current openings within the DOCCS is 4,136, with about 2,300 security positions.

Reusing former prisons hits snag in Adirondacks

It’s unclear what the future of Great Meadow, a couple of miles east of the Adirondack Blue Line,  will entail considering it is in an Adirondack Park forest preserve county.

The state is already struggling with the redevelopment of two former prisons in the Adirondack Park. Another, McGregor Correctional Facility in Saratoga County, is outside of the blue line but in a forest preserve county like Great Meadow. The state-owned prison lands in forest preserve counties, if not used for state administrative purposes, could revert to constitutionally protected forest preserve meaning they cannot be sold or leased without a constitutional amendment.

An amendment for removing Camp Gabriels from the forest preserve has failed to pass in the state Assembly. At the end of session this year, lawmakers and Hochul, suggested a packaged constitutional amendment removing Camp Gabriels, Moriah Shock and McGregor was possible, but a bill was never introduced.

State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, criticized the state’s lack of plans for these closed facilities “that are slowly turning into blight.”

“Instead of closing Great Meadow and letting it fall apart at the expense of taxpayers, the governor’s office needs to do the smart thing and ensure that this facility can serve as a source of economic opportunity for the region,” he added.

DOCCS did not respond to the Explorer’s question about whether Great Meadow would also need to be part of a constitutional amendment. The department said it will “work cooperatively with the Office of General Services and Empire State Development to facilitate the re-use of the closed facilities. Upon closure, DOCCS will begin the decommissioning process in order to protect the State assets for potential re-use.”

Top photo: Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County. Photo by Ed Burke