Jails and prisons across the state are facing many crises. Someone should tell the Commission of Correction.
Jails and prisons across the state are facing many crises. Someone should tell the Commission of Correction. ·  View in browser
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The State Commission of Correction has vast authority to oversee jails and prisons — but it rarely uses it. Illustration: Chris Gelardi
Jails and prisons across the state are facing many crises. Someone should tell the Commission of Correction.
By Chris Gelardi

Leaders of New York’s corrections oversight agency held their monthly public meeting Wednesday. There was much they could have discussed: The state prisons, local jails, and police lockups they’re tasked with monitoring have experienced a torrent of trouble in recent months.

The state prison system is struggling to recover from a guard strike; a lack of officers has left many incarcerated people confined to their cells for upwards of 20 hours a day. That crisis has led to a backlog in local jails, with some operating dangerously close to capacity. Others are starting to take in more federal immigration detainees, one of whom died in Nassau County’s jail last week. Three people died in a recent two-week span at New York City’s Rikers Island, the ever-embattled jail complex in the process of coming under federal receivership. Prison guards just received yearslong sentences for killing an incarcerated man, and a recent report found that the suicide rate in state facilities doubled last year.

None of those things made it onto the meeting agenda.

Instead, the oversight agency, known as the State Commission of Correction, or SCOC, sprinted through a series of administrative items, rubber stamping jails’ construction plans and requests for exemptions from state regulations. The public portions of the commission’s only recurring public meeting spanned five minutes and four seconds — roughly the time it takes to read to the end of this article.

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Local and county officials have predicted that newer downstate casinos will draw customers away from the Resorts World Catskill casino resort. Photo: Daniel Case/Wikimedia Commons | Illustration: New York Focus
Sullivan County is telling investors there will be massive growth at a Catskills casino resort, but its own consultants predict decline.
By Chris Bragg

Sullivan County is asking investors to ​lend ​more than half a billion dollars​ to rescue the struggling Resorts World Catskills​, touting rosy predictions that the casino resort will soon be flooded with visitors and make dramatically more money — even though its own consultants predict the opposite.

Here’s the county’s pitch. Investors would buy up to $585 million in bonds from the county’s newly-formed local development corporation, spun out of its Industrial Development Agency, or IDA. The corporation would buy two hotels, a golf course, and an event venue — almost everything except the casino itself — from the current owner, Empire Resorts, Inc. The cash infusion could enable Empire Resorts to invest in the property and to pay off $300 million in debt due next year, helping it stave off possible bankruptcy.

A round of raises, following New York Focus reporting, could help change high turnover rates in the New York state Assembly. Photo: Matt Wade/flickr | Illustration: New York Focus
The first significant pay increase in years could strengthen the office responsible for reviewing major legislation.
By Sam Mellins

Albany sometimes has problems writing laws that actually work. Omissions and errors can render bills ineffective, leading to serious consequences like people staying in jail past their release dates or parents not being able to use child care vouchers.

One reason for these failures is that the staffers responsible for reviewing and finessing bills are underpaid, overworked, and frequently leave their jobs, starving the development of expertise and institutional memory.

A recent round of raises could help change that.

Copyright © New York Focus 2024, All rights reserved.
Staying Focused is compiled and written by Alex Arriaga
Contact Alex at alex@nysfocus.com

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