The Prison Explosion, Part 2b

STATE HAS ECONOMIC STAKE IN NEW PRISONS

In 1988, New York state spent twice as much on higher education as it did
on prisons -- a difference of more than $1 billion.

Last year, it spent $100 million more on prisons than on higher education.

The tally: prisons up $780 million; colleges down $580 million.

Critics of the state's prison buildup fear that a new "prison industrial
complex" -- employing 32,500 statewide, operating 71 facilities and
spending $2.2 billion annually -- has become an integral part of the
state's economy.

"You won't get anybody saying, 'We gotta keep these drug laws in place
because it helps our economy,' '' said former State Sen. John Dunne, who
wants to repeal the so-called Rockefeller drug laws that have sent
thousands to prison. "But when you scratch below the surface, you find the
almighty dollar."

Union officers, legislators and others say prison expansion has been driven
not by dollars but need.

"I'd be a fool to say it's not a business,'' said Dennis Fitzpatrick,
public relations director for the correction officers union.
"Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil."

State Senate Corrections Committee Chairman Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Seneca
County, maintains new prisons were desperately needed to ease overcrowding
that had created ''extreme tensions.''

''If those critics want to see those pre-Attica conditions exist, they only
need to continue harping away at prison expansion,'' he said, referring to
the state prison that was taken over by inmates in 1971.

Money influence debated

The notion that a concerted effort to keep prisons full even when crime
drops particularly irks policymakers and criminal justice officials.

"Totally preposterous," was how Katherine Lapp, the state's director of
criminal justice, characterized it.

But family members of inmates, reform advocates and prisoners rights groups
assert the role of prisons has grown so large that vested interests
invariably will begin to influence policy, if only subtly.

For example, the correction officers union has become a significant
lobbying force; it gave $25,000 to a Senate Republican committee and
$16,000 to an Assembly Democratic committee this year. Fitzpatrick said the
money is meant to support issues pertaining to job safety, including
officer training.

"Some people have argued it's become a jobs program for upstate counties,"
said Thomas Terlizzi, executive director of Prisoners Legal Services.
"There are certainly elements to make that argument." Among them, he said,
is the continuing tough talk on sentencing even when crime drops. Gov.
George Pataki now wants to eliminate parole for nonviolent offenders, as he
has for violent offenders.

Prison dollars have 'appeal'

In many upstate counties, prisons have become a lucrative and sought-after
vehicle for economic development. Since 1982, all 38 new prisons were built
in upstate communities, where land is plentiful and jobs short.

"Prison dollars have a strong appeal,'' stated a report by the City
Project, a policy research organization based in New York City. "These job
development benefits are well-known to government officials."

The incarceration buildup of the 1980s was meant to address what one
expert, Todd Gaziano of the Heritage Foundation, called a ''very severe
underincarceration problem'' that was forcing states to release violent
felons early. New York is still considered overcrowded -- about 27 percent
of inmates share single cells -- but many argue it is not because of too
little prison space but overly harsh drug and sentencing laws.

Even the state Department of Correctional Services touted the benefits of
its newest prison, Five Points.

"The Seneca County area, in particular, will reap substantial economic
benefits as a result of the new facility," an in-house newsletter stated,
pointing to its $25 million payroll and $3 million in secondary jobs.

Coxsackie Mayor Henry Rausch said the two prisons in his town are big
economic engines, providing 1,000 jobs and ancillary business and housing
benefits.

''They are fighting tooth and nail upstate for prisons. ... It's a clean
industry. They're very good jobs. The benefits are second to none," he said.

"Basically we're cash cows," said ex-inmate Ray Rios, repeating a common
theme among inmates. "That's the sad reality of it."

Where the state's newest prisons have been built show just how desirable
they are. The last five facilities were opened in districts represented by
three powerful Republican senators: Corrections Chairman Nozzolio (two),
who represents the Finger Lakes region; Codes Committee Chairman Dale
Volker (two), who hails from Erie County; and Finance Committee Chairman
Ronald Stafford (one) of Plattsburgh.

Nozzolio said the latest prison built ''is an important part of our efforts
to redevelop and revitalize the Seneca Army Depot," which had been a major
employer before closing.

Asked the City Project report: "Has the opportunity for job development
blocked movement to change the sentencing laws responsible for sending
thousands of minor offenders to prison?''

Budget cutback elsewhere

That's an open question. But the soaring budget for incarceration
invariably means something else in the state budget has to give.

"The dramatic rise in funding for prison expansion has come at the expense
of worthwhile social programs like higher education,'' reported the Justice
Policy Institute and Correctional Association of New York, prison reform
organizations, in a 1998 study of spending on higher education versus
prison funding.

As a result of the higher education cuts, tuition hikes have put higher
education out of reach for many minorities, the report said. For African
Americans, a year's tuition cost 24 percent of median family income in
1988; it was 42 percent in 1997.

At the same time, the report noted, the number of blacks and Latinos sent
to prison for drug offenses rose more than 1,000 percent from 1980 to 1997;
for whites, the increase was 93 percent.

"For white youth, 'going upstate' probably means attending one of the dozen
good SUNY schools in the region," the report said. "For black and Hispanic
youth, the term more likely refers to a trip to one of the state's shiny
new prisons."