GOSHEN – Employees at the Goshen Secure Facility, a maximum-security state youth incarceration center, were out fighting for their jobs on Thursday. They are on the chopping block as the center is slated for closure.
“It’s a great travesty. We have a lot people who work in there,” said Tiron King, who represents nearly 100 CSEA members.
The facility’s closure is included in the upcoming state budget, and many including state senators Mike Martucci, (R, New Hampton) and James Skoufis, (D, Cornwall), are worried about the more than 300 lost jobs and the ripple effect throughout Mid- Hudson communities.
“What this state is looking to do is put 321 hardworking union members out of work,” said Martucci. “Cuts to programs here in Goshen hurt working families and residents here at this facility.”
The state is expected to save about $22 million by closing this facility and others like it. Now Martucci and Skoufis have co-sponsored a bill that requires a one-year closure notice and legislative support for facilities such as the one in Goshen.
“In the past year, we have had literally millions of New Yorkers laid-off or furloughed. And just about the dumbest thing we can do in the state budget is lay off more people here in New York State,” said Skoufis. “We should be focusing on doing the opposite. This ought to be jobs first budget to enact in about five weeks, not putting forth proposals that lay off an additional 321 New Yorkers coming out of a pandemic.”
