Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C-Schoharie) is just as shocked and frustrated as many are in upstate communities that a short-notice announcement to close Sullivan and Great Meadow Correctional Facilities was made without proper coordination with local governments and the men and women who work these facilities on the ground.

As part of the state budget, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision was authorized to close five prisons by 2025. Sullivan and Great Meadow are both expected to be shuttered by November 6, leaving prison populations displaced and the men and women who work those facilities without a future. Tague, an advocate and proud supporter of New York’s correction officers, attempted to raise issues with this proposal through a press conference earlier this year, and despite his protests, the worst has come to pass.

“My Minority colleagues and I advocated against this proposal because we knew it would result in an unorganized disaster that would leave hardworking men and women without a job, would displace a prison population to a degree that becomes challenging to manage and could potentially result in a further rise in dangerousness in upstate communities,” Tague said.

“Our state continually stands by while crime runs rampant, and for many correction officers and their families, the lack of support they’ve been feeling up to this point can only be intensified through this impersonal and unprofessional closing procedure. I am heartbroken for the hardworking New Yorkers who put their lives on the line every day as they work in these facilities keeping communities safe, only to have their government turn around and put them down with these proceedings. This state has the capacity to do better, yet under current leadership, it fails at every opportunity,” Tague concluded.