Assemblyman Tom O’Mara (R,I,C-Big Flats) this week joined hundreds of corrections officers and legislators from both sides of the aisle at a rally to stop the governor’s proposed cuts to the state’s correctional system.  The governor’s office has proposed closing and consolidating a number of correctional facilities throughout the state as a way to reduce the state’s budget deficit. 

“With unemployment still hovering around the double digit mark, now is not the time to be laying off hardworking corrections officers who put their lives on the line everyday when they go to work,” said O’Mara.  “Cuts have to be made at the upper administrative levels and they should be made to the departments that are bloated.” 

            Assemblyman O’Mara noted that the corrections department is currently operating at 103%, which is over capacity and has forced inmates to be double bunked at many correctional facilities, representing a serious safety concern to correction officers. 

“The guard to prisoner ratio at many of the state’s correctional facilities is of great concern and places the lives of corrections officers and prisoners at risk while making working conditions more stressful.  Worst of all, it opens the door to potential prison riots,” said O’Mara.

Assemblyman O’Mara added that the legislature should strive to improve working conditions and make prisons safer for inmates and the staff who serve and rehabilitate them, and not make cuts that lead to layoffs and more dangerous prisons.

           “Lawmakers need to provide the state’s correctional facilities with the tools and resources they need to run safe prisons while making initiating reforms to reduce costs, but not safety,” concluded O’Mara.