scrambling for the crumbs

The local newspaper ran a front page story today regarding the Cuomo administration's plans to close additional prisons in the state to deal with a budget shortfall of over 2 billion dollars.  As someone who has had extensive dealings with the North Country since the 1980s, I know how dependent the area has been on the prison industrial complex.  When news of the first prison to be located in the Malone area became known, there was a mad scramble among local residents for the good paying union jobs that would become available.  The local farms I was dealing with saw their best employees leaving in droves.  The result was the importation of Mexicans to do the jobs locals would no longer do for the pay being offered.   Now, it is looking like at least some of the many prisons in the area will be closing as jail populations dwindle in the post-carceral era.  Instead of insisting on job programs and retraining for the hundreds of employees whose careers are on the line, our representatives are in the unenviable position of advocating for the continued incarceration of fellow human beings so their constituents will continue to be employed. So, here we are again chasing jobs in a dehumanizing industry while plutocrats continue to enjoy a standard of living most of us can envision on the flip side of a lottery ticket.