On Tuesday, Franklin County Legislator Andrea Dumas, State Senator Dan Stec, State Department of Corrections and Community Oversight Captain Jay Skiff, and DOCCS Assistant Commissioner Steve Crozzoli spoke in the corridors of the abandoned Camp Gabriels State Prison in Gabriels. (Corporate photo — Aaron Cerbone)
Gabriels - As State Senator Dan Stark walked through the basement of the long-closed Gabriel Camp State Prison on Tuesday, broken glass and paint shards creaked under his shoes. His eyes scanned the sagging ceiling, graffiti walls and messy floor, but he talked about the future where the large courtyard could be used again.
"I can imagine a summer camp," he said.
However, the state needs to pass a constitutional amendment first, because the property can be said to be in the state forest reserve and cannot be sold. This amendment will require a long process, and since it was first proposed in 2016, it has not received sufficient support in the legislature.
This former lowest-security state prison has been empty since it closed in 2009. A few years ago, when environmental groups pointed out that it was protected by the “Forever Wild” clause of Article 14 of the state constitution, the state’s efforts to sell it ran into obstacles.
Stec of R-Queensbury said that for many years he had been one of the legislators trying to make an exception for Gabriel’s camp, but he himself had never entered the compound. He said he should look inside, so when people asked him about the property, he knew what he was talking about-so he organized a Tuesday tour.
On Tuesday, State Department of Corrections and Community Oversight Captain Jayskieff opened a former inmate at the abandoned Gabriel Camp State Prison in Gabriel for State Senator Danske and Franklin County legislator Andre Dumas The gate of a residential building. (Corporate photo — Aaron Cerbone)
"It has a lot of potential," said Franklin County legislator Andrea Dumas.
Dumas is also a staff member of Stec. She said that Camp Gabriels is located in her county, so she has seen it before, but since her last visit, the property has become even more dilapidated.
Steck said that if these buildings already exist, the state should not allow them to rot.
Back to the old prison
From left, State Senator Dan Stec, Assistant Commissioner of State Department of Corrections and Community Oversight Steve Crozzoli, Franklin County Legislator Andrea Dumas and DOCCS Captain Jay Skiff spoke in the building of Gabriel’s abandoned Camp Gabriels State Prison on Tuesday. (Corporate photo — Aaron Cerbone)
Jay Skiff is the Correctional Captain and Acting Deputy Sheriff of the Raybrook Adirondack Correctional Institution. He led Stec on a tour of the prison-he held the key to the door. He served as an officer at Camp Gabriel for 12 years until 2009.
"I have been here until the day we closed," he said.
Skiff said it was strange to come back on Tuesday. The facility where he used to work every day was once a familiar sight, but now it's overgrown on the outside and rotted inside.
"It looks like the Blair Witch plan," he said.
From left, Franklin County Legislator Andrea Dumas, State Department of Corrections and Community Oversight Assistant Commissioner Steve Crozzoli, State Senator Dan Stec and DOCCS Captain Jay Skiff spoke in the building of the abandoned Camp Gabriels State Prison in Gabriels on Tuesday. (Corporate photo — Aaron Cerbone)
Skive once said that there were more than 300 prisoners in Gabriel's camp. That was when the drug laws of the Rockefeller era flooded prisons, and more people were in the country because they drove many times after drinking. He said these are low-level non-violent criminals.
"This is a very quiet facility," Skive said. "It's really a pleasure to work here."
Since prisoners commit non-violent crimes, the state allows prisoners to be sent to staff. Skiff said they will learn about public project transactions and help build the Winter Carnival Ice Palace on Lake Saranac.
After the anti-drug law was relaxed, the prison population decreased. He said that when the prison closed in 2009, it had about 160 residents.
Skive thinks the Gabriel Camp’s work plan is useful.
"It has worked very well for the staff and everything," he said. "They are more than just housing and warehouse prisoners."
On 92 acres of land, there are 48 buildings distributed in the woods, including five open-space housing units, a canteen, a gymnasium and a chapel.
There are also many infrastructure and public facilities there-a sewer plant, salt shed, garage, six wells and an outdoor freezer. There is also a baseball field overgrown with weeds.
But there has been a decade of vandalism in abandoned buildings-mainly broken windows and graffiti. Over time, all the doors were broken, and now they are just unlocked.
There is a door at the entrance to allow vehicles to enter, but there is no fence around the prison to prevent urban explorers from entering and entering the building. Skiff said that when he was working there, Paul Smith's college students sometimes accidentally went into prison while hiking in the woods.
Stec was impressed by the speed at which nature reclaimed open space in 11 years. Where there used to be lawns, conifers now grow to 12 feet tall. There are turkey tracks on the snow outside the canteen.
Inside, the shape of the building is rough. In some buildings, the floor is rising, the ceiling is collapsing, and in most buildings, the humidity has peeled the paint from the walls.
But the foundation is solid, Skiff said.
The State General Services Office has jurisdiction over the property, but Skive said the Adirondack Correctional Facility in Raybrook has the keys.
Stec said that this amendment is not at the top of the Albany list, but he also feels that it is not controversial. As far as he knows, the environmental organization has no objections, and in the past, both Protect the Adirondacks and Adirondack Wild have supported the sale of the property.
The camp was built in 1897 as a tuberculosis sanitarium run by a nun of mercy. In 1938, New Yorkers approved Article 14.
In the years since, the camp has changed hands and uses many times-aged care after World War II, and classroom and dormitory spaces at Paul Smith College in the 1960s and 1970s. These transactions are good because it is always private.
In 1982, the state turned the property into a minimum-security correctional facility, but it has been empty since former Governor David Paterson closed the prison in 2009.
Skiff said the state closed because it sought to cut costs. It was one of the first correctional facilities closed in New York.
In 2011, OGS in the state tried to sell the property at auction twice, but there were no buyers.
This land was almost sold in 2014. Adam Finn of Rockland County plans to purchase the camp for US$166,000 as a summer camp for Orthodox Jewish boys. But the transaction was never completed because environmental advocates have stated that because the property is state-owned land in Adirondack Park, it defaults to a forest reserve when the prison is closed.
Article 14 The state prohibits the transfer of land in forest protection areas. Although environmental protection organizations have stated that they are not opposed to the state's sale of this land, they hope that the state can obtain constitutional amendments through appropriate channels, and hinted that if the state does not do so, they may sue. They want to retain the legal protection of Article 14.
This led to the withdrawal of Jewish groups trying to buy land because it was unable to obtain investors who were worried about delays.
In 2016, after the Brighton City Council promoted a constitutional amendment, former state senator Betty Little (Betty Little) proposed an amendment to amend Article 14 that Gabriel Camp “does not intend to be Included in a forest reserve", and because 48 built buildings on it, this land is "not suitable for a national forest reserve."
The amendment failed to obtain final state legislative approval. Although it was proposed by northern country legislators in the Senate and Parliament every year thereafter, it has never been passed as needed in two consecutive sessions.
According to county property records, the current valuation of the property is $892,857.
Stec said the value of the land is not important. The goal of the state is not to make money by selling property. He said the goal is to put the property into use. The property can be sold or even transferred to a non-profit organization.
"It's no good for anyone to leave it here," he said. "The situation will only get worse."
The adoption of constitutional amendment is a long and arduous process. The amendment needs to be approved by the State Senate and Congress in two consecutive legislative sessions, and then it needs to be approved by a majority of voters in the New York ballot proposal.
In the last legislative session, the State Senate tried to pass a constitutional amendment but failed to pass the parliament, so the process will now begin again.
"We will try again next year," Stec said.
The amendment can be voted on as early as November 2023.
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