NCPR: Bare Hill prison in Malone to close as the North Country's prison landscape shrinks

One of three state prisons in Malone is set to close next spring. The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) announced on Tuesday that Bare Hill Correctional Facility will close its doors on March 11, 2026.
 

In a statement, DOCCS said Bare Hill was chosen after it “carefully conducted a thorough review of operations at its 42 correctional facilities.” 
 

Democrat Michael Cashman of Plattsburgh, who was sworn in as Assemblyman for the district that covers Franklin County last week, said the closure is wrong for workers, their families and the North Country.
 

“These are dedicated men and women who have served this state,” he said. “Now, through no fault of their own, their careers are being threatened, their families destabilized, and our local economy placed at severe risk. The consequences will ripple throughout our region’s economy.”
 

Republican State Sen. Dan Stec of Queensbury said in a statement that he was disappointed by the announcement.
 

“Given the implications of this announcement, my primary focus is on ensuring that the correction officers and civilian staff currently employed at Bare Hill remain working and living in Malone and Franklin County,” he added.
 

Staff to be offered jobs 
All 293 staff employed at Bare Hill will be offered jobs at other state prisons. According to DOCCS, there are more than 650 vacant positions at nearby facilities in Franklin, Clinton, and Essex Counties. Those include Franklin and Upstate Correctional, both of which neighbor Bare Hill in Malone.
 

Bare Hill is closing under authority granted to Gov. Kathy Hochul in this year’s state budget to shutter up to three prisons with 90 days notice.
 

John Roberts is a vice president with NYSCOPBA, the union that represents COs. He said Bare Hill staff are now shifting from the anxiety of not knowing whether their facility was on the chopping block to the stress of working short-staffed with uncertain futures.
 

“Sometimes I feel like we’re political pawns across the state,” he said. “The North Country keeps getting prison closures. I feel like we’re having these conversations yearly now and, you know, that’s upsetting because the prison population has went up.”
 

NYSCOPBA said in a statement that the state’s inmate population has increased by about 7% since January 2023, though according to DOCCS, it’s declined by more than half since the all-time high reached in 1999.
 

Inmate impact
That’s reflected in Bare Hill’s inmate population. There are currently a little more than 700 people incarcerated there, which DOCCS said is less than half of the facility’s capacity.
 

Now all those men will have to be moved to other prisons. Jonathan Monsalve is president and CEO of the Osborne Association, a nonprofit that provides services like family video visiting and a reentry program to incarcerated people at 38 correctional facilities, including Bare Hill.
 

Monsalve said it’s important for the state to work with organizations like his and be transparent so inmates and their families can properly prepare for the changes coming with the closure.
 

“Working with incarcerated individuals to fully understand their needs, getting clear and transparent communication to folks as quickly as one can do it,” he said. “I know that there are some constraints to doing that, but obviously the sooner that the incarcerated person and their loved ones as well as the community knows that the closure is coming, the better prepared they can be.”
 

Staffing crisis
News of Bare Hill’s closure comes during a tumultuous year for the state corrections system. Thousands of COs across New York illegally went on strike in February, citing safety issues. More than 2,000 were fired, exacerbating an existing staffing crisis.
 

The state has since relied on National Guard members to fill in staffing gaps, lowered the minimum hiring age for COs and launched a large-scale recruitment campaign.
 

Roberts said prison closures aren’t the solution, and can discourage potential COs from wanting the job. He said he’d rather see the state space out the inmate population among existing facilities and staff.
 

“Try to run smaller, safer prisons with the staff we have to see if that model works to try to reduce the violence and many other issues inside the system,” he said.
 

The latest closure of many
 

Bare Hill will be the fifth prison to close in the North Country in as many years, following Great Meadow, Ogdensburg, Moriah Shock, and Watertown, as well as the Clinton Annex in Dannemora. Since 2009, the state has closed nine correctional facilities around the region, shrinking the North Country’s role in New York’s prison landscape.
 

Roberts said these closures take a toll on the surrounding communities.
 

“The gas stations and the local stores and the restaurants and everything like that are also impacted where we’re losing hundreds of jobs potentially forever.”
 

Monsalve acknowledged those effects, but said he sees the closures as a good thing, and a bit of a reckoning for rural areas whose economies have depended on incarceration.
 

“We built these prisons a long time ago. We don’t need them in the same way that we used to, and I think we’re starting to think about different and innovative approaches to, rather than incarcerating a human being, how can we support them differently? How can we work with them differently?”
 

In addition to closing Bare Hill, DOCCS also plans to consolidate part of Collins Correctional Facility, south of Buffalo, by the end of the year.
 

DOCCS said these actions “will help ensure the safe and efficient operation of the system, utilizing staff more effectively while operating programs in a safe manner.”
 

Read the article in its original format here.