Guest Viewpoint: Gov. Hochul's prison reuse amendment: A belated welcome echo

In her 2026 State of the State agenda, Governor Hochul presented the following language: "…today, several former correctional facilities – Camp Gabriels, Moriah Shock and Mount McGregor – sit dormant. These crumbling sites are more than just eyesores; they are environmental hazards and lost opportunities for the people who call the North Country home. To address this, Governor Hochul will propose a constitutional amendment to return these underutilized sites to productive and critically-needed uses." As part of this plan, more space would be added to the Forest Preserve. This is a welcome announcement, but it isn't a revolutionary concept. In fact, the idea sounds quite familiar. It's an echo of something I've specifically fought and called for throughout my Senate tenure. In an op-ed on environmental conservation published by Adirondack Almanack on October 28, 2025, I said the following: "For five years, I've sponsored legislation to facilitate the sale of Camp Gabriels in the Town of Brighton in Franklin County, while ensuring that the funds from the sale go toward forest preserve acquisition in the Adirondack Park. While it's passed the Senate each time, it gets held up in the Assembly. A major sticking point continues to be the amount of land to be added to the forest preserve. Meanwhile, the Camp Gabriels property lays dormant. Not only is that bad for our region financially, keeping a valuable property from being used as an economic driver, it is also an environmental concern. The longer the Camp Gabriels facility stays dormant, the risk of this blight becoming an environmental hazard increases. And that's to say nothing of the fact that the shifting goalposts around Camp Gabriels—one of several closed, dormant prisons in the Adirondacks that's in a state of deterioration—has only ensured that no new land is being added to the forest preserve while increasing the chances of long-term safety and environmental problems on these grounds." Time and again, I've sponsored or called for legislation to spur action on the Camp Gabriels and Moriah Shock properties, as well as Great Meadows in Washington County – a facility the governor omitted in her plan that also requires urgent action. Through a confluence of factors – legislative inertia in the Assembly, where the Camp Gabriels amendment I've sponsored and passed in the Senate five times has failed to pass, and shifting goal posts on the part of environmental advocates – constitutional amendments for these sites has continued to be stymied. But the need to take action and get dormant prisons back into reuse is more urgent than ever. The fact that Governor Hochul saw fit to include a constitutional amendment for prison reuse in the State of the State agenda – the blueprint for her strategy this year – is a recognition of that fact. While I've repeatedly – and a simple on-line search of "Dan Stec Camp Gabriels" bears this out – urged the governor and Assembly to take up prison reuse, it's often felt that these calls have fallen upon deaf ears. With the inclusion of prison reuse in her agenda this year, it seems that Governor Hochul is finally responding and joining my longstanding effort. Welcome aboard, governor. —A legislative column by Senator Dan Stec (R,C-Queensbury)

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Guest Viewpoint: Gov. Hochul's prison reuse amendment: A belated welcome echo

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