Senate Standing Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction member Senator Patty Ritchie recently toured three North Country prisons—Riverview Correctional Facility, Ogdensburg Correctional Facility and Gouverneur Correctional Facility—with Senator Patrick Gallivan, who serves as Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction

Senators Ritchie and Gallivan were able to meet with administrators and staff members at each facility to discuss what New York State can do to keep our prisons and corrections officers safe. Senator Ritchie’s bill, (S.2949), to help ensure correctional facilities across the state have adequate staffing has passed the Senate. Another bill she introduced, (S.4077), would guarantee full retirement benefits for surviving family members of a retirement eligible corrections officer who dies while still on the job with the New York State Department of Corrections. That bill passed both the Senate and Assembly and has been delivered to the governor.

During the visits, Senator Gallivan and Senator Ritchie—the daughter of a former corrections officer—also expressed their gratitude for the work corrections officers do every day. Senator Ritchie also plans to visit both the Cape Vincent Correctional Facility and Watertown Correctional Facility as part of this tour.

(Senator Ritchie is pictured in the attached photo with Senator Patrick Gallivan and NYSCOPBA Chief Sector Steward Kevin Aldous)