\u201cThe proposed facility will include approximately 3,000 beds, multiple new housing and support buildings, security systems, and significant site and utility infrastructure improvements,\u201d the documents said.<\/p>\n
As to where the new prison might be located, the documents only said it would \u201crequire access to transportation and other essential community support services.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Governor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/governor-kathy-hochul-speaks-media-139206263.jpg\")
Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s administration is shockingly now exploring the possibility of building a new massive state prison. Lev Radin\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
The shocking development comes after Hochul has faced fury from corrections officers for shuttering almost a dozen prisons<\/a> since she took office as the prison population declines and the state fails to retain staff.<\/p>\n A massive illegal wildcat strike<\/a> by corrections workers last year brought the corrections system to its knees, requiring thousands of National Guardsmen to work at sites at the ongoing cost of millions of dollars<\/a> a month.<\/p>\n Some state lawmakers of both sides of the political aisle said they were gobsmacked that Hochul is entertaining building a new facility. All of them said they were not even remotely aware of the plan and demanded answers.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore spending a single dollar on studying new construction, the state owes taxpayers an honest accounting of the correctional real estate it already owns,\u201d said Assemblyman Scott Gray (R-Jefferson), whose district encompasses several large facilities in the North Country.<\/p>\n He said the state needs to explain why it\u2019s building a new prison instead of rehabbing the old facilities it\u2019s shuttering and whether a new \u201cmega facility\u201d is the precursor to more closures and staff downsizing.<\/p>\n \u201cAcross the state, the pattern is the same: facilities close, communities lose economic activity, and properties sit unused with no credible plan for reuse,\u201d Gray said in a statement. <\/p>\n \u201cThe state\u2019s track record on this is poor, and the result is significant real estate damage in community after community.\u201d<\/p>\n State Corrections Department spokesman Tom Mailey said the study is \u201cstrictly a conceptual exploration, and no decisions have been made.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in the early stages of exploring what a modern facility could look like, focusing on incorporating modern technology and spaces built specifically for rehabilitative and reintegrative programming,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cModernizing our facility-wide technology would improve safety for both staff and incarcerated individuals while allowing us to phase out inefficient, paper-based systems.<\/p>\n \u201cBeyond infrastructure, new facilities present an opportunity to elevate the work of our security and civilian professionals and drive meaningful culture change across the system,\u201d Mailey said.<\/p>\n Hochul rep Jess D\u2019Amelia told The Post on Friday that the study is necessary to evaluate \u201chow to best modernize an aging prison infrastructure,\u201d though cautioned that plans for a new facility are not final.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Hochul committed to ensuring that state prisons are as safe as possible, which includes evaluating how to best modernize an aging prison infrastructure \u2014 some of which has existed for over 200 years,\u201d D\u2019Amelia said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile there are currently no plans to build a new facility, this administration remains committed to exploring all avenues to enhance safety for all those within our prison system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2013 Gov. Kathy Hochul is exploring building a new 3,000-bed state prison \u2014 the largest in New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4241,22884,21470,68,426,57,9,11,10,49,51,50,4719,58],"class_list":["post-344169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany","tag-corrections-officers","tag-department-of-corrections","tag-exclusive","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-prisons","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/250319-queensboro-correctional-facility-queens-100725098.jpg\")
One of the state\u2019s prisons is the Queensboro Correctional Facility in New York City. J.C. Rice<\/p>\n