BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG — Ogdensburg City Council unanimously passed a resolution urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to consider the county’s poverty rate and economic situation before closing Ogdensburg Correctional facility.

Deputy Mayor John Rishe put the resolution forward Dec. 6.

He noted that 26.6% of the county’s children live in poverty and that the per capita income of the county is $25,378, which is among the lowest in the state.

“This poor decision to eliminate state jobs in one of the poorest counties in the entire state was short-sighted and failed to consider the poverty in St. Lawrence County, and will only exacerbate the chronic poverty and low-income rates in St. Lawrence County,” he said.

Rishe said closing the prison would only compound the problem.

“The City Council of the City of Ogdensburg requests that the State of New York reverse its decision to close the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility,” the resolution said. The resolution adds that the state to take into consideration the socio-economic conditions of a county or region when determining which facilities to close.

Ogdensburg Correctional Facility is among six prisons slated for closure on March 10, 2022.

Ogdensburg Correctional Facility is a medium security institution that had a staff of 268, with 158 incarcerated individuals and a capacity of 557 in November, though at least 50 corrections employees received transfer notices since then.

Major concerns have been raised regarding the prison closure, with jobs at the forefront. However, other issues raised by opponents of the closure include the recent $10 million investment to the facility, the efficiency of the facility, the massive amount of food grown by inmates and the state’s failure to repurpose other facilities that have been closed.