Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Corrections officers walk next to a fence covered in razor wire June 15, 2015, as they leave work at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y.(Photo: Mark Lennihan, AP)
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York's prison system likely will undergo changes after two killers broke June 6 out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York.
But while the capture of the two escapees in recent days raises new questions, some prison groups and lawmakers warned that tougher laws might curtail effective programs that give inmates leeway in exchange for good behavior.
"The politicians in a situation like this will feel the need or the pressure to huff and puff," said Robert Gangi, who for 29 years headed the Correctional Association of New York that advocates for prisoners' rights. "And they'll put in place policies as if they are punitive and severe as if that would make a difference. And in fact, in all likelihood, it would not."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo cautioned Monday against any immediate reaction after David Sweat and Richard Matt were found in the Adirondacks after breaking out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y. A federal border patrol agent killed Matt on Friday; Sweat was shot twice in the torso Sunday and was in serious condition Monday at Albany Medical Center.
USA TODAY
Recaptured killer: Escapees were headed to Mexico
Cuomo said the situation was unique and may have been a case of lax oversight at what was believed to be a prison nearly impossible to escape from.
The convicted murderers allegedly were aided by prison worker Joyce Mitchell, with whom they were romantically involved. She and corrections officer Gene Palmer have been charged with helping them.
“This was 'Cool Hand' Luke meets 'Shawshank Redemption.'”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York
"This was Cool Hand Luke meets Shawshank Redemption," Cuomo said Monday on MSNBC.
Cuomo has directed the state Inspector General's Office to investigate the break out. He said one area of concern is that the men were assigned to the "honor block" at the prison, allowing them to wear civilian clothes and cook.
Mitchell and Palmer allegedly slipped the men tools through packages of hamburgers, and the tools allowed them to cut through thick walls and steel pipes for the remarkable getaway. Matt and Sweat had been part of the honor block because of good behavior; it has since been shut down.
"You have this practice of an honor block, which I understand the concept, which is to keep the inmates having a positive incentive, Cuomo said. "Because if the inmates are well behaving, it's easier on the guards; it's easier to manage the prison.
"But we have a lot of work to do, investigating both the cooperators and making the point that that can not happen, and if that happens, that will be fully prosecuted."
Many have warned about the Dannemora prison. A report last year from the Correctional Association called Clinton "plagued by allegations of violence and staff brutality at a level that is among the worst" of all New York prisons. New York also has been aggressively closing prisons and increasing its alternative-to-incarceration programs in part through less stringent drug laws.
Clinton Correctional Facility is seen on June 18, 2015, in Dannemora, N.Y.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Andrew Burton, Getty Images)
The state has closed 13 facilities and eliminated 5,550 beds since Cuomo took office in 2011. The closures have led to complaints from the correctional officers' union that they need more staff.
"There is no doubt that more dangerous situations will unfold in our prisons if we don't adequately staff these facilities," Mike Powers, president of the state Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement April 1.
But Cuomo's office disputed the union's contention. His office cited statistics that showed the inmate-to-guard ratio was the same between 2006 and this year: a ratio of 2.8 inmates to every guard. At Clinton, the ratio has also stayed the same: about 3 inmates to every guard.
Cuomo said the answer is not more money for the system.
"I understand that people want to say consistently that the answer is more money to every problem," he said Monday on The Capitol Pressroom, a public radio show.
Still, the state's prison system had a 29% increase in assaults on officers by inmates between 2010 and 2014. Most were at maximum-security facilities, including Attica, Bedford Hills, Clinton and Elmira, according to state records reviewed by Gannett's Albany Bureau.
USA TODAY
Feds withhold name of officer who killed escapee
Overtime has soared at the state's prisons: up 12% between 2013 and 2014, to a total of $180 million. Overtime hours at the state's 54 prisons were up 21% between 2010 and 2014, records from the state Comptroller's Office showed.
At Clinton, overtime hours grew 11% between 2013 and 2014.
Some lawmakers said new laws may be needed to address any breaches at the prisons. They may hold hearings on the breakout.
USA TODAY
Who is Sgt. Jay Cook, the man who shot N.Y. escaped prisoner?
The Assembly's Corrections Committee chairman, Daniel O'Donnell, said the goal should to be to strike a balance between giving inmates incentives for good behavior and ensuring safety.
In the Dannemora case, workers "may not have been enforcing the rules or they may have been turning the other way. But right now we don't know," the Democrat from Manhattan said. O'Donnell introduced a bill that would require any prison investigation to be conducted independently by the Inspector's General Office, rather than an internal probe in the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
Months before the prison break, an internal review found no misconduct between Mitchell and Matt.
"It's very difficult to investigate their own," O'Donnell said.
Some Republican lawmakers have called for an independent review of the escape — outside of Cuomo's administration. They also are pressing for a law that would prohibit hardened criminals from wearing civilian clothes in prison.
"There needs to be an independent top-to-bottom investigation as to what happened and then let the chips fall where they may," GOP Assemblyman James Tedisco of Schenectady, N.Y., said in a statement. "But this modest, common-sense legislation is a no brainer."
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed