Published March 30, 2015

The Legislative Gazette 

The New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association is going on the offensive in a new ad campaign urging lawmakers to provide more resources for prisons to keep prisoners and guards safe.

Even though crime is dropping, and the prison population is at its lowest level in years, the prisoners inside the walls are more dangerous than ever, say corrections officers and their allies in the Legislature.

"We are going to have some really dangerous situations unfold in our prisons if we don't get serious about investing in staffing and the technological resources our officers need to take on the modern day challenge of incarceration," said Mike Powers, president of NYSCOPBA, the union that represents more than 26,000 New York state employees and retirees from the Security Services Unit.

A Department of Corrections spokesperson notes that the agency has requested additional funding in the upcoming budget for more security personnel.

 Photo by AP

"The NYSCOPBA Executive Board's decision to use member dues for a public campaign is within their right," responded the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to the Legislative Gazette inquiry on recent NYSCOPBA's ad campaign. "We respect that, but we remain committed to having an open and ongoing dialogue. For the upcoming fiscal year, DOCCS has submitted a recommendation to the Division of the Budget for an increase in security staffing."

Many of the Republican senators serving on the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee believe adequate staffing levels are the first step in making sure New York's correctional facilities are safe.

"In addition to providing adequate staffing, it is critical that the men and women who work in such high-risk and stressful situations have access to the best training and latest equipment in order to ensure the safety of officers, staff and inmates," Sen. Patrick Gallivan, chairman of the committee, told The Legislative Gazette in an exclusive interview.

"As a former state trooper and sheriff of Erie County, I know the job of a corrections officer is difficult and often dangerous, with violence inside our prisons all too common," added Gallivan, R-Elma.

Sens. John DeFrancisco and Betty Little, members of the Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction, also stressed the importance of staffing levels in interviews with The Legislative Gazette.

"With the increased rate of retirements of correction officers I believe more correction officers should be hired and at a rate that will be sufficient to compensate for the reductions of the current force," said DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse.

"We need to ensure our officers have the resources and the staffing levels they need to stay safe and do a good job," said Little, R-Queensbury.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo had proposed a $28 million reduction in the Division of Criminal Justice Services but a 1.4 percent increase in Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the 2015-2016 Executive Budget over the previous year.

"Tell Albany we have to invest in the resources needed to protect our communities and our state," states one of the advertisements created by NYSCOPBA.

Following the closure of several prisons in 2014, 473 security jobs were expected to be eliminated. However, as part of the 2014-2015 state budget, 275 corrections officers positions were approved, offsetting the projected job loss. As a result, only 198 jobs were eliminated.

This allowed 275 correction officers to transfer into funded positions at the remaining 54 correctional facilities, according to a statement released by DOCCS in November 2014. However, NYSCOPBA claimed, in a 2014 report, those positions, while critical to provide much needed support to prisons statewide, had not yet been filled, with no reasonable explanation.

The closure of four prisons in 2014 resulted in the elimination of 1,280 beds from operation and an annual savings of $30 million, according to 2014 Annual Report for the Assembly Committee on Correction.

"Prison closures have had an impact on the system as the officers and civilian staffs have had to adjust," Little said. "I've also spoken with officers who have said over the past ten years the type of prisoner they are seeing is more dangerous. More are in gangs and that activity goes from the street to inside the prison walls."

New York has one of the lowest crime rates in the United Sates, and also has the lowest imprisonment rate of any large state, according to 2015-16 Executive Budget. From 2004 to 2013, the crime rate in New York declined 15 percent, with a continued decline in the first six months of 2014. However, despite the decline in prison population the climate inside the facilities has grown more dangerous.

"The trend seems to be fewer incarcerations, but those being sent to prison are more hardened and more dangerous," Little said.

Since 2010, the offender population has decreased by more than 4,000 inmates, but the number of reported assaults on correction officers increased by 30 percent, according NYSCOPBA.

"This trend does not surprise me," said Sen. John Bonacic, R-Mount Hope, in an interview with the Legislative Gazette. "The [Cuomo] administration is more concerned with the prisoners' rights than the safety of the corrections officers."

Mid-Orange Correctional Facility which is located in Warwick, in Bonacic's district, was closed by Gov. Cuomo in 2011.

"The closure of four correctional facilities has caused 'double-bunking' to occur in a cell in some prisons, and overcrowding in general at the other prisons. This creates a more stressful and hostile environment," Bonacic said.

On the other hand, Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, chair of Committee on Correction, told The Legislative Gazette there is no evidence that indicates Cuomo's administration concerned prisoners' rights more than the safety of the correction officers.

"That's ridiculous. I have no evidence … for them to draw this conclusion," said O'Donnell, D-Manhattan. "I don't believe there is any differentiation between this governor and previous governors that we had about how they view that. The conditions that we keep people in should meet the standards of the United Nations and I hope the Republicans would support that idea."

O'Donnell sponsors a bill A.01346 that would make New York prisons compliable with international human rights standards by adopting recommendations from the United Nations Committee Against Torture regarding the use of solitary confinement in American prisons.

"I have visited 23 prisons. I can tell you that solitary confinement is overused in New York prisons. We need to change the way we use solitary," O'Donnell said. "Following the Committee Against Torture's report, it is all the more clear that the reforms contained within these bills are vital and urgent.

"New York's prisons should be places of rehabilitation, not counterproductive punishment. The bill will contribute to that goal by making solitary confinement a true measure of last resort and banning its use for particularly vulnerable inmates who are under 21, pregnant, or mentally ill," O'Donnell added.

In July 2014, the New York City Bar Association accused the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision of placing many of its residents in isolated confinement. In November 2014, the United Nations Committee Against Torture particularly mentioned New York as one of the six states which has a high rate of inmate deaths, resulting from extreme heat exposure while imprisoned in unbearably hot and poor ventilated prison facilities.

In addition, the New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement claimed all states within the United States are currently engaging in systematic torture of prisoners through the use of solitary confinement.

"I disagree with the contention that there is systematic torture," Little said. "For prisoners who pose a persistent and high level of danger to other inmates and officers, solitary confinement is the best means of assuring others of their safety. It has to be an option."

Sens. DeFrancisco and Little told The Legislative Gazette use of solitary confinement is an option that can be utilized by correction officers against violence operated by gang members in the state prisons.

"Corrections officers need an option to remove a violent prisoner from the general population as long as the isolation is humane, it is a needed option," DeFrancisco said.

There are as many as 50,000 gang members in New York, according to a report released by U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office, based on 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment. United Blood Nation is a prison gang formed in 1993 within the New York City jail system on Rikers Island's George Mochen Detention Center. Also, Trinitario was established in 1989 within the New York state prison system. Trinitario is a Hispanic organization formed in prison, providing protection and unity for Hispanic inmates within DOCCS prisons.

"Gang members in our prisons are clearly having an impact on the level of violence we are seeing at many facilities," Gallivan said. "I believe the best solution is to make sure that the officers are properly trained and adequately equipped to deal with violent inmates."

The senator said he is not aware of any form of torture by DOCCS. Gallivan has recently sponsored two bills, S.435 and S.436, in the Senate which would codify restrictions regarding the use of solitary confinement for pregnant inmates, those with developmental disabilities and for inmates under the age of 18.

"In two separate 2014 court cases, the department agreed to greatly restrict the use of solitary confinement for pregnant inmates, those with developmental disabilities and for inmates under the age of 18," Gallivan said.

In February 2014, DOCCS agreed to an interim stipulation with the New York Civil Liberties Union and their incarcerated person clients in a potential class-action lawsuit about the use of solitary in the state prisons. Key components of the stipulation include creating alternative disciplinary units with some additional out-of-cell time for 16 and 17 year olds and people with developmental disabilities; establishing a presumption against solitary confinement of pregnant women; and calling upon experts to offer recommendations for more comprehensive reforms.

"Disciplinary practices in New York's prisons are more humane, more fair and progressive, and maintain safety and security," responded the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to the Legislative Gazette inquiry. "In addition, we continue to negotiate in good faith with the New York Civil Liberties Union on other potential changes beyond those we have already agreed to. Also, to the best of our knowledge, the United Nations Report about deaths resulting from extreme heat exposure was not about the New York state prison system."

Bill S.435, sponsored by Gallivan in the Senate, provides that where the department of corrections knows that an inmate is pregnant; there shall be a presumption against placement in segregated confinement or other restricted confinement unless there are exceptional circumstances which would create an unacceptable risk to the safety and security of other inmates or staff. In addition, bill S.436 provides out-of-cell programming for adolescents.

Also, bill A01347, sponsored by Nily Rozic in the Assembly, would exclude pregnant prisoners from solitary confinement in New York correctional facilities.

"Knowing that excessive periods of isolation can lead to emotional, physical and psychological harm, we must continue to build on recent efforts to ban the use of solitary confinement as punishment," said Rozic, D-Fresh Meadows, who is a member of Assembly Committee on Correction.

"Now that we have passed these bills through committee, we are another step closer to reforming New York's correctional facilities and creating an environment that focuses on rehabilitation and safe re-entry," Rozic said.

Ultimately, legislators and those who lobby for the rights of prisoners as well as the safety of corrections officers say they are fighting for the same goal: safer prisons.

"Inmates and everyone who works in our prison system have a right to a safe environment," Gallivan said.

Concern over yet another proposed pipeline

A proposed gas pipeline has mobilized environmental groups and state and local lawmakers along the Interstate 88 corridor who oppose it.

The Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline would be built alongside the recently approved Constitution Pipeline. It has been proposed by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, which is a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan.

Environmental groups and community leaders from Schoharie County say the proposal poses a direct threat to hundreds of waterways and several important forest blocks, requires the seizure of private land through eminent domain, and encourages more fracking in Pennsylvania as gas companies take advantage of the increased transportation capacity to export fossil fuels abroad.

The construction of the Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline would connect Tennessee Gas pipelines in Pennsylvania with lines running east to west from central New York to Massachusetts and along the Connecticut border. The proposal is approximately parallel with the proposed route of the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline between Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania and Wright in Schoharie County, which was recently federally approved.

The Constitution Pipeline is considered an "open access pipeline," which means local municipalities, public utilities and other third party providers are permitted to tap the pipeline to offer natural gas service.

Assemblyman Pete Lopez, whose district includes a part of six counties that would be affected by the pipelines, believes the Kinder Morgan pipeline would only create duplication and would cause more controversy and concern among residents.

"It appears to be a gross duplication of the route already approved by the federal government for the Constitution Pipeline," Lopez said.

Lopez, R-Schoharie, last week called on Kinder Morgan to abandon its plans to seek federal approval to build a natural gas pipeline alongside the Constitution Pipeline.

"When I questioned [Representatives of Kinder Morgan] about the duplication, they offered me no real defense," Lopez said. "Their simple answer was that they were in competition with Constitution and that their proposed pipeline would be a feeder line that would provide them with access to low cost shale gas from Pennsylvania which they would then distribute through their existing network."

A third company, Leatherstocking Gas Company LLC, has agreed to install four interconnects along the Constitution Pipeline's route to facilitate local natural gas service. It plans to develop natural gas distribution systems in Central New York where there is no natural gas service.

An example of Leatherstocking's activity is their plan to deliver natural gas service to the Amphenol Corporation, which is located in Sidney in Delaware County.

After the severe flooding in Sidney in 2006 and again in 2011, Lopez pressured the Cuomo Administration put an emergency relief package to keep Amphenol in Sidney. An important part of the package was to secure natural gas from the Constitution Pipeline, which could yield annual energy savings to the company and allow it to provide well-paying jobs to the area as well as helping to stabilize the local and regional economy suffering from recurring floods. 

"The Amphenol example has real meaning," Lopez said. "The availability of low cost natural gas will help offset the losses from the floods and offer the potential for real energy cost savings to local businesses, home owners and institutions throughout the region, helping them to be sustainable and continued contributors to the economy and quality of life." 

On March 5, Kinder Morgan announced its subsidiary, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, has finalized plans for its anchor shippers for the market path component of the proposed Northeast Energy Direct Project. 

"We are pleased that a broad range of New England market participants have declared, through binding contractual commitments, the clear need for an expansion of TGP to provide a transformative solution to reduce energy costs and enhance gas and electric reliability in New England," said KMI East Region Natural Gas Pipelines President Kimberly Watson.

On the other hand, studies show a lack of existing pipeline capacity was not the cause of last year's high energy prices in the northeast. A 2015 U.S. Department of Energy study shows 46 percent of U.S. pipeline capacity is unused. Some experts believe more pipelines are not the solution to high energy costs in the state.

"It's shameful that Kinder Morgan is proposing this pipeline in light of the cumulative impacts it will have on our communities and environment," said Wes Gillingham, a co-founder and the program director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization.

"It's outrageous and unacceptable that the FERC continuously rubber stamps these projects, effectively aiding and abetting the fossil fuel industry and failing in its responsibility to safeguard our communities and natural resources. We don't need new pipelines. We need a fossil fuel freeze, now," Gillingham added.

During a rally last week, opponents of the proposal said it would carry many of the same risks as fracking itself does, including the harmful effects of air and water contamination. Speakers including anti-fracking activist and filmmaker Josh Fox, and also featured information such as the unsafe and toxic aspects of fracked gas, the risks of inevitable pipeline accidents and the notion that New Yorkers should not allow fracked gas to be transported across the state. 

"It is official New York state policy that fracked gas is bad — bad for public health, bad for the environment, bad for everyone," Fox said. "We should extend the same moral and legal protections to our fellow citizens in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and points west by stopping the ridiculously named 'Constitution Pipeline' and asserting our right to a clean future without fossil fuels or the human right violations that their extraction causes."

Assembly passes Reproductive Health Act

By DANYAL MOHAMMADZADEH
Published in The Legislative Gazette

Just one week after the Assembly passed a package of anti-human-trafficking bills, Democrats in the Assembly voted for the much-debated bill to re-codify state abortion laws.

The bill is part of the Women's Equality Agenda, which has been the subject of heated debate in Albany for the last several years.

The Reproductive Health Act, a point of contention between Republicans and Democrats for more than two straight sessions, would protect access to women's reproductive health services. The Republican-controlled state Senate has refused to advance the bill while approving the Women's Equality Agenda. 

"The Assembly majority believes women should be allowed to make the best choices for themselves and their families," said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie during a news conference at the Capitol last week. "We believe that her body is a personal space, and its privacy and autonomy must be defended."

Bill A.6221, sponsored by Assembly member Deborah Glick, D-Greenwich Village, codifies into state law the reproductive rights women have had under federal law since 1973, ensuring that a woman in New York can get an abortion within 24 weeks of pregnancy, or when necessary, as determined by appropriate medical judgment, to protect her life or health.

"New York has protected a woman's right to choose since 1970," Glick said. "Federal protections have been in place since 1973, covering the life and health of women. It is necessary to make these laws consistent and codify Roe v. Wade in New York state law."

Forty-nine Assembly members voted against the Reproductive Health Act, most of them Republicans.

"I am proud to have stood for the sanctity and dignity of human life," said Assemblyman David DiPietro, R-East Aurora. "Human life is to be preserved and protected, inside the womb and out. I spoke at length on this issue, and will continue to do so for as long as I'm privileged enough to serve as your assemblyman."

Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Mohegan Lake, believes this abortion expansion legislation is headed nowhere in the state Senate and that the Assembly should spend more time on budget negotiations. 

"This bill isn't going to be brought up in the Senate, and instead of working on areas of bipartisan support to improve our struggling economy, we've spent hours on dead-end legislation" Katz said. "That's Albany in a nutshell."

"Instead of focusing on expanding our leadership in ending innocent life, we should be working on our dead-last ratings in economic friendliness and business climate," Katz added.

Recently, Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, responded to the wave of opposition from Senate Republicans and said it is deeply disappointing that they continue to stand against efforts to codify the Roe v. Wade decision into New York state law.

"Unfortunately, my Senate Republican colleagues have taken a step backwards," said Stewart-Cousins, who sponsors the Senate bill (S.4432), which is in the Health Committee.

The New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, a Christian conservative political advocacy group, has been steadfast in its opposition to the bill, which they say would further expand abortion in New York state by changing the text in the law about who can perform an abortion, under what circumstances and until what stage of the pregnancy.

The Executive Director of the group, the Rev. Jason McGuire, said he does not anticipate the bill being passed in the Senate, but said he is thankful other bills that protect women's equality have been separated from the controversial abortion bill.

"New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms is thankful that the 10 component parts of the Women's Equality Act are being separated and voted on as stand-alone bills," McGuire said. "There was no valid reason for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his Assembly allies to connect important, pro-women measures with late term abortion expansion; doing so has unnecessarily delayed the passage of bills that – unlike abortion expansion – would make New York state a better place,"

The legislation does not change or alter existing state and federal laws that permit a health care provider or institution to refrain from providing an abortion based on religious or moral beliefs. It continues New York state's protection for religious exemptions, say the bill's supporters.

"This measure was part of Governor Cuomo's Women's Equality Act which the state Senate refused to pass in its entirety largely because of their objections to women making their own health care decisions," Glick said. "The Assembly has always supported New York women in their efforts to control their own reproductive health decisions."

In the United States, almost half of the 6.3 million pregnancies each year are unintended and about 1.3 million end in abortion, according to Abortion and Post-Abortion Care, a study conducted by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.

The study shows 87 percent of U.S. counties and 31 percent of metropolitan areas have no abortion provider. One-quarter of all women who have abortions in non-hospital facilities have to travel 50 miles or more to receive these services. 

"Updating this law is long overdue. We must protect a woman's right to make her own health care decisions," said Assemblyman Fred Thiele, Jr., I-Sag Harbor. "Women have a constitutional right to make decisions about their own bodies, and that freedom must always be protected."

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco found that women who seek to terminate a pregnancy, but are turned away from abortion services, are three times more likely to fall below the poverty line within the subsequent two years than women who are able to access such services.

The study also found that women who are denied an abortion are more likely to stay in a relationship with an abusive partner than women who have access to abortion services.

"The right to reproductive freedom is a fundamental right, New York state must strengthen reproductive health rights and respect women's decisions," said Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, a co-sponsor of the bill.