The Department of Correctional Services is the largest executive agency in the State. It costs $2.5 billion annually to operate. It employs more than 31,000 staff.
There are over 65 state prisons in New York. 55 of these prisons are in rural areas. 40 of these prisons are located North and/or West of Albany.
75 percent of people in New York State’s prisons come from just seven neighborhoods in NYC.
During the 1990s, a prison opened somewhere in rural America every 15 days. Today there are over 350 rural communities in the United States that are home to a state or federal prison.
Today there are approximately 7,000 empty prison beds throughout the state prison system. 5,000 of those beds are actively being supervised by Corrections employees.
Crime and incarceration rates have been dropping steadily in New York State since 1999.
The staunchest support for criminal justice policies that require long prison sentences and high incarceration rates comes from politicians whose districts include prisons and prison jobs.
Today one in every 31 Americans is under correctional supervision – in prison or jail, on parole, or on probation. In total, the U.S. government spent $47 billion on the prison system in 2008 alone.
No Responses Yet to “Prisons”