OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) – Thursday was the official last day for the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility.
The last group of prison inmates was moved out February 8, transferred to other facilities, according to a statement from the state Department of Corrections and Community Services. (DOCCS) As of Thursday, there were still 111 people working at the Ogdensburg prison.
For most staff, Thursday was their last day of work at the Ogdensburg prison. Between five and 10 staffers will stay on after the closing to help with the transfer of equipment from the facility, according to a DOCCS official.
Ogdensburg was one of six prisons to officially close Thursday. All the employees were offered jobs elsewhere in the prison system, but “some chose not to avail themselves of the opportunity for placement at locations where vacancies existed or declined the offer of employment,” according to the DOCSS statement.
“I hate to see people who have been there for many, many years now have to commute to Gouverneur or the Utica area or the Malone area. Some people might have to uproot their families. It’s a very trying time for our members,” said Mike Powers, who lives in Ogdensburg and who is president of the statewide correctional officers union, NYSCOPBA (NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association).
“It’s a real tough day for a lot of people in Ogdensburg,” said state Senator Patty Ritchie Thursday.
Ritchie was a leader in the effort to keep the prison open. She told 7 News Thursday she still doesn’t believe Ogdensburg Correctional Facility met the state’s own criteria for closing “but unfortunately we weren’t able to get them to change their mind.”
Ritchie said there is one heartening development: she spoke with the new commissioner of Empire State Development – the state’s main economic development agency – and asked her to come north to see the closed prisons in Watertown and Ogdensburg, as well as the long-shuttered buildings at the former St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center in Ogdensburg.
“She did tell me she was very interested in that and she would do her best to get up here and take a look at it, so that was very hopeful,” Ritchie said.
“We can’t allow another building the state owns to crumble,” Ritchie said.
Governor Hochul closed Ogdensburg and the other prisons because the number of people locked up in New York state is now at its lowest level since 1983.
New York has the lowest imprisonment rate of any large state, according to DOCSS.
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