On Jan. 1, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision released its annual report on the state of New York's prisons. There was no fanfare, no news release or a meeting with representatives from our union.
Instead, the agency buried its report in a dusty corner of its website. It would have preferred to not release it at all. Why? Transparency would get in the way of the Cuomo administration's shortsighted plan to close several upstate correctional facilities.
If DOCCS did publicize its report, it would have to admit that New York's correctional facilities are overcrowded and dangerous.
Every single statistic that measures violence in prisons is at a five-year high. There were more assaults by inmates on staff. There were more assaults by inmates on other inmates. And assaults were proportionately more likely to result in injuries.
Even more troubling, the state has started to downplay the severity of those injuries to make our prisons seem safer than they are. According to the DOCCS official report, corrections officers suffered zero "serious" injuries last year. Yep, zero. Really?
In reality, 2013 saw at least five separate assaults on staff resulting in broken bones, four separate stabbings of corrections officers, and two incidents in which corrections officers received concussions. For example, one corrections officer at Greene Correctional Facility was punched to the floor and then kicked in the face by an inmate. The attack broke his cheekbone and eye socket bone. As of now he has still not recovered enough to return to work. Yet DOCCS did not consider his injury serious.
The causes of the increased violence are simple: correctional facilities are overcrowded, and the density of violent offenders is higher than ever. More than 10,000 inmates are forced to double bunk.
Meanwhile, since 2004, the percentage of male inmates in maximum-security prisons with violent felony convictions has risen from 75.4 percent to 81.4 percent.
In other words, more than four out of five male inmates incarcerated in maximum-security correctional facilities today have been convicted of a violent crime such as murder, rape or arson. Many have been convicted of multiple violent crimes. Some of these inmates want to spend their prison term peacefully. Some don't.
Despite DOCCS' claims, in December 2013 alone, there were five serious assaults on corrections officers. One inmate attacked an officer with a homemade ice pick, and a second refused to return to his cell and then fought two officers. An inmate broke an officer's nose with a punch to the face. An inmate threw human feces at an officer. An officer needed 17 stitches after being attacked by another inmate.
These violent — and potentially lethal — incidents can occur at any time. The men and women of my union, the New York State Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association, are proud to help keep New York safe, but the state must be honest in reporting the increase in violence in our prisons.
And given the true conditions our members are facing every single day, the Cuomo administration must reconsider the ill-conceived plan to close four more correctional facilities this year.
Taxpayer money can be better saved by smarter reforms, such as trimming administrative bloat, streamlining overtime costs or cracking down on waste and fraud. Unilaterally closing prisons harms public safety.
It also will devastate upstate communities that rely on correctional facilities for good-paying jobs that help protect the public.
With upstate's economic recovery still fragile, now is not the time for mass job cuts.
It's time to be honest. Our correctional facilities are violent enough as it is. Let's not make them worse.
Donn Rowe is president of the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association.