Mapping Closures, Capacity, Staffing, and the Evolving Landscape of NY's Prisons
Published: March 15, 2026
New York’s prisons are operating well under capacity and strained by staffing shortages. The map below provides a snapshot of the most recently available population, capacity, and staffing level data for operational prison facilities, illustrates where recent prison closures have occurred, and includes the status of fixed camera installations and use of body-worn cameras by facility. The map also places prisons in context by indicating county-level population data.
Stationary and Body Worn Cameras:
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) is gradually installing stationary cameras in prisons, a process which has been expedited with an additional $400 million in the FY 2026 State Budget. As of October 2025, the installation status remains partial across the system's 41 state prisons. Eleven facilities currently have facility-wide stationary cameras fully installed. Six facilities are currently in the process of having facility-wide stationary cameras installed; two of these facilities anticipate completion in 2028. The remaining facilities have yet to begin the process of installing facility-wide stationary cameras. According to records shared by DOCCS in October of 2025, there were body cameras in-use at all but one facility.
Population, Capacity, and Staffing:
As of March 2026, prisons were 80% full when considering total capacity versus total population. This represents a modest increase in fill rate compared with October 2025 due to a roughly 600-person increase in population alongside a decrease in capacity with the closure of Bare Hill in March 2026.
As of July 2025, 26% of DOCCS positions were vacant, with significant vacancies in all staffing categories: security (30% vacant), health services (24% vacant), support services (16% vacant), and program services (14% vacant). The overall vacancy rate decreased between April and July 2025 from 28% to 26%, driven primarily by security, where there was an increase in roughly 300 full time equivalents (FTEs). Despite the modest decrease in vacancy rates between April and July 2026, staffing vacancy rates are still far from the levels seen before illegal corrections officers' strike in February and March 2025, which were closer to 15%.
The impacts of staffing issues manifest differently across prisons. Operations can vary from one prison to another due to several factors, including facility security level. The table below includes information about each prison’s regional hub, security level, neighboring facilities, capacity, staffing levels, the installation of facility-wide fixed cameras, and the use of body-worn cameras.
In the past twelve years, the number of prisons in the state has decreased by 29.3%, and the prison population has dropped by 36%. The line graph below charts changes in the prison population in relationship to the closure of 17 prisons since 2014.