BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) announced it will consolidate part of the Collins Correctional Facility campus and close Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Franklin County.
Included in the New York State budget that passed earlier this year, lawmakers voted to give Governor Kathy Hochul "final approval" to close up to three state prisons. With that green light, DOCCS began a formal review process at its 42 facilities. DOCCS said the review was based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to: Available beds, physical infrastructure, program offerings and whether they can be relocated to other institutions, facility security level, specialized medical and mental health services, locations where there are no Correction Officer reassignment lists, and other facilities in the area to minimize the impact to staff.
After the review, DOCCS made the decision to close Bare Hill Correctional Facility and consolidate part of the Collins Correctional Facility campus.
DOCCS said Bare Hill Correctional Facility will close on March 11, 2026, at the close of business. There are 293 staff assigned to the facility and they will be offered positions at other facilities. DOCCS also said there are over 650 vacant staff positions available in correctional facilities in Franklin, Clinton and Essex Counties and it does not anticipate any layoffs due to the closure.
According to DOCCS, the consolidation of part of the Collins Correctional Facility campus is to "more efficiently deploy staff and manage the facility," and its goal is to complete the transition by the end of the Fiscal Year.
"This is part of the Department’s ongoing plan to be transparent and consolidate services to ease staffing," DOCCS said in a release.
DOCCS said both facilities will be maintained "in a state of ready," including utilities and maintenance staff to provide for upkeep.
"The decision to close any facility is difficult for all involved. Across the country, correctional agencies continue to struggle to meet staffing demands, and the Department is no exception despite new and aggressive recruitment efforts. The closure of one facility and consolidation of Collins Correctional Facility will help ensure the safe and efficient operation of the system, utilizing staff more effectively while operating programs in a safe manner. This decision was decisively made to minimize the effect on staff, and at the same time attempt to close the gap on staffing shortages in our correctional facilities."
In February, corrections officers across New York State took part in a wildcat strike over what they claimed were unsafe working conditions inside state prisons. You can find more of our coverage of the strike here.
At one point, officers at about 30 correctional facilities across the state were participating in a protest or refusing to enter the facility for their scheduled shift, including at Collins Correctional Facility.
In March, DOCCS Commissioner Daniel Martuscello announced the strike was over and the over 2,000 people who remained on strike and did not return to work received termination letters. At the time, the commissioner said there were over 10,000 security staff working or available to work in prisons across the state. You can read more here and watch our report below.
The 7 News I-Team took a deeper look into the impact strikes had on staffing levels. Through an official Freedom of Information Law request, the 7 News I-Team learned more than 500 prison staffers, statewide, resigned between February and April of this year. Many of those resignations came during or after the strike. You can read more here and watch our report below.
The New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) released a statement and said in part that it "strongly opposes" the DOCCS decision.
"These closures will only deepen the crisis of violence, chronic understaffing, and unsustainable working conditions that already plague New York’s prison system," NYSCOPBA said in part.
You can find the full statement below.
"The New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) strongly opposes today’s announcement by the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to close Bare Hill Correctional Facility and a portion of Collins Correctional Facility. These closures will only deepen the crisis of violence, chronic understaffing, and unsustainable working conditions that already plague New York’s prison system.
Since January 2023, the number of correction officers and sergeants, the frontline staff who perform the vast majority of daily duties has plummeted by 28 percent, while the incarcerated population has increased by 7 percent. Staffing levels are now at their lowest in decades. This is not a system on the brink; it is a system that has already broken.
Closing additional facilities is not a solution, it is a reckless acceleration of the problem. Consolidating an already growing population into fewer prisons makes it harder to separate violent individuals from the general population, guarantees more assaults on staff and incarcerated people alike, and further fuels the cycle of violence and attrition.
For our members, these closures mean life-altering choices: uproot entire families and move hours away to keep their jobs or resign and walk away from careers they have dedicated their lives to. The stress on our officers and their families is already immense; announcements like today’s only compound it and drive more experienced staff out the door.
'We have sounded the alarm for years that New York’s correctional system is at a breaking point,” said Chris Summers, NYSCOPBA President. “Closing prisons is a short-sighted Band-Aid on a gaping wound. It does nothing to address historic staffing shortages, does nothing to curb the record levels of violence inside our facilities, and forces loyal public servants to choose between their livelihoods and their families. Prisons are safest when they are properly staffed and when the population is spread out enough to manage risk effectively. The real solution is to keep facilities open, aggressively recruit and retain staff, and stop treating correction officers as disposable.”
It is abundantly clear that if you commit to doing this extremely difficult and dangerous job, don’t expect the State of New York to commit to you. Since 2009, the state has closed 27 prisons, throwing thousands of correction officers and their families into chaos forcing them to sell homes, pull children out of school, and abandon the communities they swore to serve. Year after year, Albany treats our members like line items on a budget instead of the men and women who risk their lives every day to keep these facilities running. They deserve far better than this betrayal from our Governor and State Legislature. NYSCOPBA will continue to fight relentlessly for their interests and for a correctional system that is safe for staff and incarcerated individuals alike.'
NYSCOPBA calls on Governor Hochul and the Legislature to immediately halt these closures, further invest in aggressive recruitment and retention initiatives, and commit to keeping facilities open with appropriate staffing levels."
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