WBFO's Tom Dinki reports.
Cuomo was given the power in this year’s state budget to close an unspecified number of prisons, so long as he gives the state Legislature 90 days’ notice. On Monday, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision announced three state prisons, including the Gowanda Correctional Facility, will shut down by March 30. The three closures are expected to save approximately $89 million, the agency said.
Republican state legislators, as well as union representatives, gathered outside the prison on Tuesday to criticize the closing. State Sen. Minority Leader Robert Ortt (R-Tonawanda) called the announcement, just four days before Christmas Day, “especially cruel.”