NYSCOBA: Save Butler Minimum
Tuesday, March 9 2010
AUBURN - James McDonald has 20 years as a corrections officer in New York’s criminal justice system. The Hannibal resident has worked in facilities in Sullivan and Oneida counties and elsewhere, finally coming close to home at the Butler Minimum Correctional Facility.
Now, with its impending closure in January, McDonald, 52, who grew up in Oswego County and raised his family there, is faced with moving to keep a job in the correctional system.
He is among 62 workers facing a similar decision as the facility, and three others in the prison system close because the state Department of Criminal Justice Services says it has empty beds and too many facilities.
The New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents the corrections officers, rallied in Auburn March 4 for the officers, saying if DOCS really wanted to save money, it would pare down its ever-growing administrative staff and leave the front-line officers alone.
Chris Hickey, vice president of NYSCOPBA, said for too long the safety of corrections officers has been sacrificed in favor of administrators who have never set foot in a prison. Other union leaders said that there are empty cells because of double-bunking, which may save money but creates danger for officers and creates artificial evidence for closing prisons.
They are balancing the budget on the frontline, and it’s flat out wrong, the union asserts.
Assemblymen Robert Oaks of Macedon and Gary Finch, who represents Auburn, joined the union at the rally, held at the Ukranian National Club on Cottage Street. They echoed the union, saying that it was wrong to close Butler and noted the effect it would have economically on the area.
“It affects everything,” McDonald said, noting that corrections officers patronize area businesses to and from work, including buying gas and coffee at places like the 104 Store outside of Red Creek.
Andrea Eich, of Red Creek, has worked in the corrections system since 1997 and is currently a corrections officer at Butler Minimum. Her husband, Jason, works on the medium security side of the facility. They have four children ages 16 to 3. Eich is faced with transferring to stay in the system, meaning travel and time away from her family.
“I’m lucky to still have a job, but I don’t want my kids to be affected,” she said, noting that she and Jason have worked staggered shifts so they have never needed childcare. That may not be possible anymore.
If the commute gets too much, the family may have to move somewhere in the middle of where she ends up, and Butler. That would mean leaving the school district, already suffering declining enrollment, and another house for sale in Red Creek, she said.
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