Emotions high at ‘Save Great Meadow Correctional’ rally Sun. in Ft. Ann

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

Hundreds of people showed up at the Fort Ann Super Stop on Sunday to protest the state’s decision to close Great Meadow Correctional Facility on Nov. 6.

The maximum security prison in the hamlet of Comstock in Washington County was on the chopping block after this year’s state budget authorized the closure of up to five state correctional facilities “as determined to be necessary for the cost-effective and efficient operations of the correctional system.”

Some 600 local jobs will be lost.

45th District State Senator Dan Stec shared his theory for why Great Meadow was chosen by the state to shutter.

“They said we’re going to close a big one far away, no one cares, no one lives there,” he told the rally.

“Governor Hochul, congratulations on your sucker punch to Washington County,” Senator Stec added.

He encouraged people to go to the State Capitol, “knock on the door,” “ask to see the governor,” “chant” and “bring signs.”

The mood was energetic. Vendors sold Great Meadow theme merchandise including t-shirts, hoodies, tumblers, glass cups, mugs, bookmarks, keychains and koozies. One tent sold yard signs and said all proceeds will buy school supplies for children affected by the planned closure.

A kids craft station let children make their own support sign. Loudspeakers blared country music.

The crowd reached a fever pitch when 21st District Congresswoman Elise Stefanik delivered a fiery speech that started with calling out Governor Kathy Hochul for not having “the guts to show up here.”

She said Great Meadow is the backbone of the state’s correctional system and stressed its local economic importance.

“This closure will be the largest job loss in over 10 years for Upstate New York,” she said. Great Meadow is 113 years old.

In remarks to The Chronicle after her speech, Representative Stefanik urged the governor to seriously hear out upstaters like the ones at the rally.

“These are real families with devastating impacts because of her decision,” she said. “And she doesn’t have the guts to listen to them, to hear them. They’ve offered compromises, they’ve offered conversation. She didn’t even give those families time to get home before putting out publicly that announcement.

“So she needs to listen. I’ve talked to multiple families here today with kids who are going to be ripped from their school districts, spouses that are potentially going to be split up.

“It’s ripping families apart, and it’s not who we are in Upstate New York.”

44th District Senator Jim Tedisco said of Governor Hochul in his speech, “I think sometimes she thinks that she’s a queen. And she’s not a queen….

“She thinks the checks and balances are not legislative, judicial and executive. She thinks they’re ‘me, myself and I.’”

Sen. Tedisco said he wrote a Senate bill that would decree that any closure of a corrections facility in New York State has to be voted on and ratified by the full Senate and full Assembly, and urged his colleagues to pass the legislation.

43rd District Senator Jake Ashby — a Republican liked Stec, Stefanik and Tedisco — said of the closure, “It’s impossible not to see this as an assault on this community and a partisan attack.”

Democrat Carrie Woerner, the District 113 Assemblywoman, noted in her remarks the lack of nearby facilities to absorb displaced Great Meadow staff.

“If you have seniority and you’re lucky, you get to go across the street [to the Washington Correctional Facility].

“If you have a little less seniority and you’re lucky you get to go to Coxsackie, an hour and 47 minutes away.

“If you’re really unlucky and you’re young, you’re going to Wyoming [Correctional Facility in Attica, NY].”

Ms. Woerner said, “Families cannot survive if one spouse is having to drive to Wyoming for three days a week. That is not going to work.”

She suggested that if the state wants to close prisons, it should close one or two in and around New Paltz, where there are six such facilities.

Fort Ann Supervisor Sam Hall praised the scene at the rally. “This is a typical Fort Ann community event,” he told The Chronicle. “We all pull together when there’s an issue or crisis.”

He described the potential of Great Meadow closing as a crisis-level situation. “It guts our town like a fish,” he said. “They’re taking a whole intersection of our township away.”

Despite the bleak outlook, Assemblywoman Woerner tried to instill hope in the crowd the closure could be averted.

“Until they turn that key in the lock, it isn’t over,” she said. “So let’s keep fighting, let’s keep asking the questions, let’s keep pointing out the alternatives. Because it’s not over, and we’re in this fight together.”

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