ALBANY (AP) -- More prisoners were assaulted and committed suicide last year even as the inmate population declined, according to state corrections data confirmed Tuesday by The Associated Press.
To help balance the state's budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed closing some of the state's 67 correctional facilities - a move that the prison guards' union says could lead to more violence in cramped quarters.
The Department of Correctional Services reported 677 inmate assaults on other prisoners in 2010, up from 603 a year earlier, and 576 assaults on staff, an increase of nine over the previous year. The state closed five smaller facilities as the population dropped by 16,000 over the past decade, down almost 3,000 in the past 16 months after changes in drug laws took effect.
The number of suicides doubled from 10 to 20 over the past year, the corrections data showed.
The union representing 20,000 guards said the data argue against further downsizing, saying the system is at full capacity.
"More cuts will mean more inmates jammed in tighter quarters and ultimately it will mean more violence between inmates, more suicides, more violent acts on our officers," said Donn Rowe, president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association.
Corrections spokeswoman Linda Foglia countered that the closures won't affect maximum-security prisons, where most of the assaults and suicides occurred. She said assault totals in 2010 were virtually identical to 2007, 2008 and 2009.
"There's a large amount of violent offenders under custody. A slight increase doesn't mean the system is about to tip over," she said.
The union set up a model of an Attica prison double-bunked cell last week in the corridor of a legislative building. Rowe said some 10,000 inmates, pairs of violent felons, are in similar situations.
However, most are in dormitory-type rooms with several bunkbeds, where Foglia said there were only 32 assaults on staff last year, and 33 a year earlier, and virtually all resulted in either no injury or a minor injury.
Union officials acknowledged they had no specific data showing that double bunking, begun 20 years ago during severe overcrowding, increased violence.
Cuomo has established a task force to remove 3,500 unused beds from minimum- and medium-security prisons by closing some, estimated to save $72 million in a proposed $2.9 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
Inmate advocates support downsizing, saying the savings can be used for more education, mental health, anger management and other rehabilitation and diversion programs.
"The truth of the matter is violent acts happen in prison just like they happen on the outside," said Glenn Martin, vice president of the Fortune Society that helps inmates adjust to life outside. Martin, who said he spent six years in Wyoming Correctional Facility including time in a double bunk, said the union is worried about the nearly 575 jobs that would be cut.
"We can't allow union fear mongering to drive criminal justice policy in New York state," he said.
Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a nonprofit with statutory authority to visit prisons and monitor conditions, said the group doesn't see a danger in closing empty prisons.
But Gangi said the group is concerned about the increase in suicides. He acknowledged that the reported increase in inmate-on-inmate violence last year was "significant" but didn't immediately know why it happened. Prison officials have done a good job in screening who they put into cells with double bunks, keeping out inmates prone to violence or being victims, he said.
In testimony before legislators, corrections Commissioner Brian Fischer said transferring inmates to prisons that operate most efficiently and providing more rehabilitation services are expected to yield significant recurring savings and offset the excess capacity. "If the task force does not recommend rightsizing, the commissioner would be empowered to implement facility closures," he said.
(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
