Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) is calling for all state prisons to remain open and operating today amid a subtle announcement by the governor late Friday to close three unspecified state prisons. The plan was buried in a release of Gov. Cuomo’s 30-Day Amendments as changes to his Executive Budget proposal.

“Closing any state prisons would have dire consequences for public safety and the brave correctional officers who work with our incarcerated population,” Hawley said. “By consolidating the prison population, we run the risk of double bunking inmates and exacerbate the high number of violent attacks against corrections officers we have seen in recent years. This is not about a declining prison population, this is about the governor scrambling to save money to cover up his $2.3 billion budget shortfall – a terrible solution for an even worse self-inflicted problem.”