Locals rally to denounce Great Meadow closure in Fort Ann

WASHINGTON COUNTY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -  A rally was held on Sunday at the Fort Ann Super Stop as what some are calling a last stitch effort to denounce part of the state budget announced in April regarding plans by New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) to close five prisons. The DOCCS revealed on July 18 that the closure process will begin immediately at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County and Sullivan Correctional Facility in Sullivan County.

Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County is one of five planned closures slotted to take place on Nov 6. Facility workers, their family members, and the community came together in Fort Ann to speak out against the closure and express what they say will be a detrimental impact to countless families, the local businesses, and even the state. Local officials were also in attendance and called on Governor Kathy Hochul to reconsider the shutdown.

Rally organizer Kalyn Nabozny spoke at the rally about how the community will be affected.

"These officers are not just a badge number to us, these civilians are not replaceable to us," Nabozny said.

Others at the rally included current employees or Great Meadow Correctional Facility, as well as their spouses and family members. Bria Ballard, wife of an officer at Great Meadow, expressed her devastation for her family if the closure goes as planned.

"It would be devastating, the thought of it we don't know," Ballard said. "We have family here; our whole history is here; my father worked here for 31 years; my husband's father worked there for 37 years. This is roots here this is our home."

If plans to close Great Meadow and Sullivan correctional facilities move forward as planned, nearly 744 correctional officers and 61 supervisors could be displaced, according to Matthew Keough the Executive Vice President of New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association.

Those serving time in the correctional facility will also be moved to other institutions. Keough says the impact of this closure will also reach 1,010 employees, encompassing multiple organizations that represent the facility staff.

"Council 82 represents the lieutenants and security staff, CSEA represents the maintenance workers, the food service workers, the electricians, the plumbers," Keough said.

According to the DOCCS, the reason for the closure comes down to current staffing levels and the decline in population. Those currently employed at Great Meadow are awaiting where they will be placed, and no layoffs are anticipated.

However, some are leaving their jobs and forgoing pensions in hopes of not being relocated to another part of the state . One spouse I spoke to telling me it could be as soon as August 8 when these decisions will begin being made.

"These men and women including my husband have been at Great Meadow for 20 years," Amanda Therrein said. "He is a sergeant and has been a Sergeant for two years. Because he took sergeant two years ago that means he's going to probably be two and a half three hours away at 41 years old paying room and board and being away from this family."

Nabozny, said those employed in the facility, like her husband, are deeply involved in the community and stand in as school staff, athletic coaches, a community resource.

"There are mentors and staples in the community, they are our firefighters," Nabozny said. "They come home after a shift where they interrupt an attempted suicide or respond to multiple attacks. They push there kids on the swings they give there babies a bath and they rock them to sleep. And they wake up and do it again the next day."

Those at the rally were hoping to get through to officials who want to close the facility and focus their attention to on-going violence against staff, short staffing, recruitment and retention of officers, and reconsider their decision. Rally members are planning on visiting the capital to speak with officials directly in the future.