While crime remains at frightening levels across our state, the Progressive Democrats are planning to close two more prisons. This brings the number to 24 under Gov. Kathy Hochul and her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.
The Assembly’s Republican Conference is dead set against this. As we suffer the impacts of the soft-on-crime policies of the Democrats and the open borders of the Biden-Harris administration, we need more jails, not less. We need to send a message to the repeat offenders, gangs, and crooks that their crime sprees cannot continue. If you break the law, you go to jail.
The upstate prisons at Sullivan and Great Meadow must stay open. Closing them illustrates the commitment of the Democrats to undermine law enforcement any chance they get. Their anti-law enforcement stance puts police in the crosshairs, leading to numerous assaults on people in uniform.
Albany’s steady drumbeat of pro-criminal policies such as prison closures and the HALT Act have also led to a dramatic rise in violence within New York’s correctional facilities. Closing prisons sends a message both to the criminal element and the men and women of law enforcement who believe state leaders don’t have their back.
As a member of the Assembly’s Committee on Correction, I’ve noted the dramatic decrease in crime in El Salvador after the election of a new president who prioritizes public safety. President Bukele stopped all major construction in his country until a new mega-prison could be built. He locked up thousands of gang members and other criminals and made his country one of the safest in South America. We should do this here.
The gang bangers President Bukele didn’t snare are coming over the open border, and the Democrats are making it easier for them to export their murderous ways and drug peddling to the states. In New York, the prison population was nearly 73,000 in 1999. Currently, it’s about half that at just over 33,400. This is no way to fight crime.
Keep up with our campaign.
