The Empire Page

Background: One of the issues that surfaced during this past spring's budget discussions was whether to close one or more prisons in light of declining prisoner population. At that time the NYS Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) -- the union representing prison guards and others -- spoke out strongly against prison closings.  To get their side of the story we interviewed Donn Rowe, NYSCOPBA president.

 

Q#1:  In June NYSCOPBA submitted testimony arguging that the Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) has an "overabundance" of administrative personnel which has not been reduced proportionately with the reduction of corrections officers as the prison population has declined and facilities have been closed.  You also suggested the DOCS could save millions of dollars by consolidating administrative personnel.  How was your proposal received and has there been any favorable movement on this issue?

A: First let me thank you for the opportunity to correct the misinformation that has been disseminated concerning the New York State Department of Corrections.  

Yes, NYSCOPBA submitted testimony to the Legislature expressing our concerns with the Department of Corrections making severe cuts to the security staff, while at the same time maintaining an overabundance of administrators. NYSCOPBA has been and will always be supportive of the Governor’s desire to seek potential cost savings within the budget. Since September 2008, we have lost approximately 850 permanent correction officer items, which is almost ten percent of our entire workforce.

The key component that has been forgotten when it comes to the NYS inmate population is the following. In 1999 the prison population was at a high of about 71,000 inmates, but at that time we were at 130% of our legal capacity. That means we had inmates living in gyms, empty supply rooms, closets etc… Now that the inmate population has declined by approximately 10,000 inmates it means we can take the inmates that were housed in the gyms, empty supply rooms and closets out of those areas and house them where they should have been in the first place. This myth that there are empty cells somewhere in the prison system is simply the department of corrections playing with the numbers on paper.

Currently, the maximum security prisons are operating at 124% capacity, the medium prisons are 96% capacity and the minimums are at 61% for an overall operating capacity of 102%.  

With that being said, there have been no cuts at the administrative levels at either the massive operations administrative center in Albany or at any of the sixty seven prisons around the state. Let me clarify the manipulation of words before I continue. The Commissioner will say he has not filled administrative vacancies, but he has made no cuts to the administration. The Commissioner made the security cuts to the correction officer title in September/October of 2008 and again in April 2009. This means he turned over 850 permanent items to the Department of Budget. That means we never get them back and that is much different than not filling vacancies.  Over the last twenty years or so, Building Two has slowly taken all administrative responsibility away from the individual facilities and most decisions are now made from their “command center”  located in Building Two here in Albany. The micromanaging of the facilities by Building Two has inadvertently proven the point that the seven to ten layers of administration at each of the sixty-seven prisons could easily be done away with or at least consolidated. 

Many of New York’s prisons are built on the same or adjacent state property only a few hundred yards from each other.  Many of these prisons are only separated by a fence or a road.  Besides the massive amount of administrators that exist at Building Two, each one of the 67 prisons in New York State each have their own full compliment of the same titles. I ask, is this fiscally responsible?

NYSCOPBA gave testimony during the budget hearings in March 2009 and gave examples on how the department should find ways to eliminate duplication and waste, now and in the future. Unfortunately, once again our suggestions fell on deaf ears and the Commissioner was successful in deceiving the Legislature.  This brings up an interesting dilemma. Each year around budget time the very administrators who know how to manipulate their own budgets are the very same ones who decide who should stay and who should go. Of course they will never cut their own.  That is why I believe that cuts at the top are even more necessary.  With today's advanced technology and instant communication the prisons could easily merge many parts of the administrative bureaucracy without disrupting the functions of the prisons at all. Real savings would emerge and that would not adversely affect the front line staff or the inmates.

The potential for immediate savings is enormous. Each prison has layer upon layer of bureaucracy and these are people that rarely, if ever, see an inmate. Sixty-seven prisons around the state and one massive operations center in Albany employ well over one-thousand administrators who earn more than $100,000 dollars a year in salary and this doesn't even include the generous benefits each of these administrators receive. Each of the 67 prisons has a Superintendent, a Deputy Superintendent for Security, a Deputy Superintendent for Administration, a Deputy Superintendent for Programs, an Institutional Steward, two and sometimes three Captains.  Many of the maximum security facilities have a First Deputy Superintendent and many of the superintendents get additional salary for being the “HUB Superintendent.”   The total payroll and benefits for those positions would be savings of ten’s of millions of dollars each year. We can no longer afford these unnecessary positions and we should stop this waste and duplication of services and get back to maintaining security within our prisons.  

Our proposals have been met with surprise and disgust. Every Legislator that I have spoken to did not realize the massive amount of highly paid administrators that existed at both the Albany administration building and at each of the sixty-seven prisons are around the state. They have expressed a desire to find out how this happened in the first place and how to bring it back under control now this it is out of hand.  We have educated the Legislators on the language the Commissioner and his spokesman use as a way when they respond or put out press releases.  The Legislators are now better informed on how the Department of Corrections uses deceptive wording and misleading population numbers to influence the public.

 

Q#2:  Prisons are very difficult for the public to understand.  For the most part the public is happy whenever a "criminal" is sent away and many people want prisoners live on bread and water without TV or any other privileges.  Help Empire Page readers understand what life is like in New York's prisons and the role a corrections officer plays in managing our prisons.

A: New York State Prisons do not, in any way, operate like you and the public are exposed to on television and the movies.

New York inmates in maximum security facilities are typically only locked in from 11:00 pm to sleep for the evening. The maximum security inmates are out from 7:00 am until 11:00 pm each day going to and from meals, school, medical callouts, the gym, the yard or other work assignments. In these setting there could be inmate to officer ratios of one-hundred (100) or more to one (1). Especially out in the yard, where because of cutbacks, the tower positions have been closed, there could be up to five-hundred (500) inmates and only a handful of officers. 

On the other hand, half of New York State Prison inmates are never locked at all. I’m talking about the medium security inmates, which accounts for 30,000 of the inmate population. My members are typically assigned to watch sixty inmates in a dorm setting where there is only one officer to watch them. This is all for all three shifts. So, unlike what you see on TV and the movies, New York inmates are rarely in their cells. The problem is confounded in the way that the Department of Corrections has the ability to change the criteria for these prisons whenever they need to. According to the DOCS reports, the maximum prisons in New York are operating at 124% and receive new maximum security inmates daily from each of the counties around the state. How do you put more max inmates into overcrowded prisons? You take max inmates out of the maximum prison and change their security classification into medium security and move them to a medium security facility. Just like magic, you now have max inmates in medium prisons where they are never locked in and it puts the officer in quite a bit of needless danger on a daily basis.

Of course, if an inmate commits an infraction or crime while in prison there are additional sanctions which could include spending some time in the special housing unit (SHU), but for the most part that is a small percentage of the population.

Getting back to your question about meals, the meals are developed by a nutritionist and prepared by cooks that in no way are close to bread and water. A matter a fact, special meals are prepared and served for both religious and medical needs at all of New York’s prisons.

My members are professionals who on a daily basis enter an atmosphere much different than you have seen on the newer television shows, such as “Lockup.”  The officers in New York do not carry any weapons on their uniform or into the prison. In New York, we only wear blue pants and a blue shirt. In some prisons we do carry batons, but that’s only for defense. No guns, no pepper spray, no vests. The system in New York is operated on an open system where the inmates are out, as opposed to locked in as you see on those TV shows from other states. In New York State officers are taught to use force only as a last resort and if used it will be investigated to the point of absurdity..  The officer’s most important tool is his mouth. Communication is vital in the prison. The officers work and see the same inmates for many years and establish relationships of respect. Just imagine a small city where the officer walks the street twenty-four hours a day. That’s New York State Prison.

 

Q#3:  From time to time you hear stories about corrections officers bringing drugs into prisons, about prisons being controlled by gangs which are divided along racial and ethnic lines, and about physical and sexual abuse of prisoners by other inmates and even corrections officers.  Is there any truth to those kinds of stories?  What are the major problems that your members face on a daily basis?

A:  Yes, unfortunately there are employees that bring drugs into prison and they are appropriately disciplined by the department; once found guilty. However, most drugs in prison are smuggled via the packages the inmates receive and the visiting rooms. Most drugs are smuggled by female visitors who have the drugs packaged in balloons and hidden in their bras. We are not allowed to frisk the visitors other than having them pass through a metal detector and check their purse. The balloons will not set off the metal detector so once in the visiting room, the visitor places the balloon in her mouth and begins making out with the inmate. The balloon is passed from mouth to mouth and swallowed by the male inmate. Two days later he has a good quantity of drugs inside the prison depending on how many balloons he swallowed during the visit. Visiting rooms in New York prisons are not what you think of based on television. There are no telephones or glass walls. All visits in the maximum security prison are open visiting rooms sitting at tables where they hug, kiss and play with their children for eight hours a day every day if they choose.

My members face the gang problem on a daily basis. Ironically, for many years DOCS refused to acknowledge that New York prisons had a gang problem until recent years. The gangs are racial and well organized. The drugs and money they produce are the main catalyst of violence as you can imagine. Regardless of how strong you may be, you are only one and they are many. The gangs will pressure the inmates to have their girlfriends or wife bring the drugs into the prison or make deliveries on “the street” as a way to stave off an assault. The inmates have constant access to payphones throughout each and every prison. Through coded letters or conversations they can still maintain control over their drug empires while in prison. They can also place hits or intimidate my members using this same practice.

As far as the physical and sexual “abuse” you ask about.  Of course we can all see the effects of a physical assault and we investigate appropriately. Most sex in prison is consensual and goes unreported.  As far as “forced” sex, that also goes unreported for the most part. Snitching is frowned upon and retaliation is the norm..  Because of the Prison Rape Elimination Act there are also many false reports by inmates against officers as a way of retaliating against an officer who does his job too well. The inmates are aware that all reports have to be investigated and it’s their way of having some fun with the officer they don’t care for. There were 83 incidents reported of inmate sexual misconduct in 2007, most of which was consensual.

Many of the dorms are designed in a way where the inmates can easily have consensual sex and the one officer assigned to watch is unable to see what is going on. The 60 plus inmates that the one officer has to oversee is dangerous when you keep in mind that the officer is making phone calls, performing cube searches, opening and securing the entrance door for a exiting or returning inmate, the mounds of paperwork, checking the bathrooms, if the officer uses the bathroom, a mock emergency created by the inmates to draw your attention away from their true intentions, etc…This is why we continually push for additional security staff throughout the state. If there is anywhere that there should be additional security it should be in prisons. New York State understands the issue of providing extra state police to cities and towns that have high crime rates, it’s called Operation Impact.    Prisons are filled with 100% violent felons and if there is anywhere there should be extra help or funding it should be in the prisons. I can never understand why that concept is so difficult to get across.

My members are in the trenches every day doing the best they can with the limited resources they are given. What we don’t need  is a continued message from our Commissioner indicating that my officers can do more with less while his administration building in Albany maintains 907 employees making very high salaries and top heavy administrations at each of the 69 prisons , also getting compensated very well.  The Commissioner should be in the forefront telling the public and the Legislature that we need more security staff; not less, the inmates need to be spread out; not consolidated and that we should be proactive and not wait until a prison riot and then ask, “How did it get to this point?”

 

Q#4:  What message would you like to send to the general public about NYS's prisons?

A: There are two topics that I feel need to be addressed over and over, that is that New York State inmates are not locked in their cells, but only to sleep and for counts. Therefore, the prison's that are shown on TV do not in any way illustrate NY prisons. We have an open system where the inmates are out and about throughout the day. So our one officer watching over sixty or more inmates is not watching them in their cells or cubes. He/she is watching them as they mingle about and that's a big difference and that is where we need "extra" help.

Secondly, when we were at a high of 71,000 inmates in 1999 we were operating at 130% capacity. Now that we have dropped approx. 10,000 inmates we have dropped our capacity to 102% overall. In that same 10 year period we have lost approx. 2,500 correction officer positions and yet the administration grows? Why do we need so many highly paid administrators watching less staff and fewer inmates? Correction Officers make half of what the administrators make and we need more help in the trenches not in the comfortable offices away from the inmates.