New York voters asked to consider Adirondack land swap, inmate volunteer work for nonprofits

NY voters asked to consider land swap, inmate work

ALBANY, N.Y. — Voters across New York will be asked next week to pull the lever on a land swap for a power line in the northwestern corner of the Adirondacks.

On a second ballot question, they will decide whether inmates can do volunteer work for nonprofits, clearing up a legal question in order to reinstate a past practice.

Neither proposed constitutional amendments has drawn any public opposition. The election is Nov. 3.

In return for transferring six acres of state Forest Preserve to National Grid, which already is using the property for a new 46-kilovolt power line along a Colton road, New York will get 43 acres of the utility’s land, also in St. Lawrence County. It’s a deal that municipal officials, environmentalists and businesses have supported.

But Richard Kessell, chief executive of the New York Power Authority, said the concern is that voters won’t have a clue and might reject it. As an amendment to the state constitution, the measure is the result of a long process requiring two approvals by the state Legislature and now the voters, a process nobody wants to have to repeat, he said.

“People downstate have no idea what it is,” Kessel said.

The 23-mile power line, intended to improve electric service reliability to Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, began operating May 1, National Grid spokeswoman Courtney Quatrino said.

David Gibson, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, noted that the swap would be a net gain of land for the Forest Preserve. This approach avoided a longer alternate route, saving acres of privately owned timberland that would have otherwise been cleared, he said.

State prison and county jail inmates already work on municipal jobs, said Tom Mitchell, counsel for the New York State Sheriffs Association. They had been used also to do volunteer work for nonprofits, but the state Commission of Correction a few years ago issued an advisory opinion that the practice might be illegal under the constitution’s provision against contracting or selling inmate labor, Mitchell said.

“For years sheriffs, many of them, would use inmates to go out on work crews. It’s not paid labor,” he said. It’s usually a reward for prisoners with trustee status who can get out for a while, and a good control tool for jail administrators, he said.

The association has been advising sheriffs for the past few years to discontinue the practice with nonprofits until the law is clarified, Mitchell said. “We don’t want to have an argument with the commission,” he added.

The constitutional amendment would authorize the Legislature to pass bills to let state and local inmates work for nonprofit organizations operated for religious, charitable or educational purposes.

The state Department of Correctional Services supports the ballot measure, spokeswoman Linda Foglia said.

Robert Gangi, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a prison watchdog group, said inmates struggling with idleness and boredom appreciate voluntary programs that get them into the community, where they might feel productive, acquire skills and make contacts. The concern is that it should not become exploitive, with prisoners feeling coerced to perform free labor and there’s a payoff for somebody else, he said.