Friday, June 28, 2024 | St. Lawrence County, NY
BY JIMMY LAWTON North Country This Week St. Lawrence County Legislators passed a resolution urging the Governor to reconsider closing Ogdensburg Correctional Facility. On Monday Department of …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active, online-only subscription then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week
St. Lawrence County Legislators passed a resolution urging the Governor to reconsider closing Ogdensburg Correctional Facility.
On Monday Department of Corrections Officials announced OCF was one of six facilities slated for closures.
Legislator James E. Reagen proposed the resolution Monday at a St. Lawrence County committee meeting.
“New York State's announcement that they plan to close Ogdensburg Correctional Facility illustrates how Governor Katherine Hochul is failing to look at what's best for the entire state,” Reagen said in a statement to North Country This Week.
“Ogdensburg Correctional has repeatedly shown it's one of the best run prisons in the state. Inmates are safer there, they have better graduation rates from educational and vocational programs. Officers have lower rates of injury, workman's comp and altercations.”
Reagen found support from several legislators who signed on to the measure as co-sponsors.
The resolution passed unanimously.
Reagen said that 11 years ago, former Governor Andrew Cuomo stood on Ford Street in front of Ogdensburg's city hall and publicly “promised me and the citizens of Ogdensburg that he would keep Ogdensburg Correctional open because the state of New York owed a great debt to our community.”
Reagen also said that Ogdensburg stepped up when other communities would not, and urged the state not to forget that.
“Ogdensburg accepted a prison in the 1980s when no community would take a prison and communities like New York City and Long Island held widespread protests against prisons being placed in their midst,” he said. In the 1990s when Rikers in New York City was battling severe unrest, Ogdensburg again stepped forward and accepted a second prison.”
Reagen said that with New York State facing rising crime and unsafe streets, this is not the time to be closing prisons.
“It's time for New York State to return to common sense and reasonable policies, not danger and foolish catch and release policies that make it appear that prisons are unnecessary.”
