New York pulled back a call for contractors interested in working on upgrades to the state’s aging prisons after word of the plans reached the public.
A request for the qualifications of architects and engineers was removed from a state Office of General Services website after several media outlets reporting on the proposal suggested the state had plans to build a 3,000-bed prison.
“DOCCS (Department of Corrections and Community Supervision) has withdrawn the recently issued Request for Qualifications (RFQ) regarding the modernization of the prison system to further refine the scope and strategic focus of this initiative,” spokesman Thomas Mailey said in a statement Sept. 14.
The state has no plans to build a new prison but will renovate and replace
prison buildings that are, in some cases, centuries old, officials say. The state declined to provide a copy of the initial request, which reports suggest was posted online on Sept. 11 on a state website before being removed. USA TODAY Network has filed a public-records request seeking documents related to the request.
Why would NY need to build a new prison, or renovate old facilities?
Over the past 12 years, the state corrections department has shuttered 17 facilities as the prison population came down from over 52,000 in 2014 to nearly 34,000 in March 2026, according to an analysis by the Correctional Association of New York.
The advocacy group says upgrades to aging facilities and outdated security systems are long overdue. “Whatever the underlying reasons, the result is a system that feels frozen in time, cobbled together, and fundamentally neglected,” a CANY report issued in January noted.
Daily headcounts at the Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus are recorded on paper and transmitted by telephone, the report noted.
Upstate lawmaker reacts
State Assemblyman Michael Cashman, a Democrat whose upstate district is home to the Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone, New York, that shut down in March, said the state shouldn’t waste taxpayer money on a new facility.
“We have many closed and standby-status facilities throughout the state that could reopen rather than wasting a projected nearly one billion dollars on a brand-new facility,” Cashman said. “We still have National Guard members in facilities because the state cannot fill correction officer roles. We still have widespread safety concerns and hazardous work conditions for the correction officers and civilians within the active facilities. This is where investment needs to be made.”
A spokeswoman for Gov. Kathy Hochul referred questions to the corrections department.
Last year, the state fired some 2,000 striking corrections officers following a three-week walkout over working conditions and understaffing. Over 6,000 members of the National Guard filled in during what state officials called an illegal work stoppage.
Thomas C. Zambito covers energy, transportation and economic growth for the USA TODAY Network’s New York State team. He’s won dozens of state and national writing awards from the Associated Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Deadline Club and others during a decades-long career that’s included stops at the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record of Hackensack. He can be reached at tzambito@lohud.com
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY withdraws its new prison system plan after outcry. What comes next
