Rome’s Oneida and Mohawk correction facilities are among 17 prisons the state Department of Correctional Services will temporarily consolidate units.

The project will empty under-populated inmate housing units across the state in response to New York’s inmate population decline. The consolidation is projected to save more than $8 million in taxpayer dollars.

Inmates from the vacated units will be transferred to empty beds in other staffed housing units. No beds will be added. Correction officers assigned to the unoccupied units will be reassigned to vacant posts elsewhere in their current facility.

Mohawk will vacate 1 unit and Oneida will empty 2. The facilities will continue to have a capacity of more than 1,000, said DOC Spokesman Erik Kriss.

The move, scheduled to be implemented over the next couple of weeks, will achieve additional savings for state taxpayers by allowing DOCS to leave the 22 housing units unstaffed and empty, Kriss said.

The plan will immediately reduce DOCS’ overtime expenses because there will be fewer unfilled posts for which officers will be required to work extra hours to cover, Kriss said. Since DOCS Commissioner Brian Fischer selected the housing units at facilities where high staff attrition has left positions vacant, all affected correction officers will be reassigned within their current facilities to fill those vacancies. No officer will have to transfer and there will be no layoffs, Kriss said.

Leaving 149 correction officer positions temporarily unfilled, on an annual basis, translates to state taxpayer savings of approximately $8.4 million, not counting the cost of benefits.

Commissioner Fischer took the action because the state prison population has dropped by almost 20 percent, or nearly 14,000 offenders, in the last decade, and by nearly four percent, or 2,250 offenders, in the last year alone. The number of inmates is projected to decline by an additional 1,000 in the 2010-11 state fiscal year, Kriss said.

The following are the number of housing units to be vacated, the number of beds that will be left unstaffed, the total bed capacity for the facility and the number of staff positions to be left unfilled:

• Mohawk (Oneida), 1 unit, 55 beds, 1,305-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Oneida (Oneida), 2 units, 92 beds, 1,215-bed capacity, 10 staff positions.

• Adirondack (Essex), 1 unit, 41 beds, 566-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Albion (Orleans), 2 units, 72 beds, 1,247-bed capacity, 11 staff positions.

• Altona (Clinton), 1 unit, 60 beds, 512-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Bare Hill (Franklin), 1 unit, 60 beds, 1,722-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Butler (minimum security portion, Wayne), 1 unit, 48 beds, 288-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Cape Vincent (Jefferson), 1 unit, 60 beds, 882-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Franklin (Franklin), 2 units, 120 beds, 1,730-bed capacity, 10 staff positions.

• Gouverneur (St. Lawrence), 1 unit, 60 beds, 882-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Groveland (Livingston), 2 units, 26 beds, 1,106-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Livingston (Livingston), 1 unit, 60 beds, 881-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Mt. McGregor (Saratoga), 1 unit, 43 beds, 544-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Riverview (St. Lawrence), 1 unit, 60 beds, 882-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Washington (Washington), 1 unit, 60 beds, 882-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

• Watertown (Jefferson), 2 units, 46 beds, 670-bed capacity, 9 staff positions.

• Wyoming (Wyoming), 1 unit, 60 beds, 1,722-bed capacity, 5 staff positions.

The plan will also result in 1,023 general confinement beds temporarily taken off line at 15 men’s medium security prisons, the women’s medium security Albion Correctional Facility and the minimum security portion of the men’s Butler Correctional Facility.

In late 2008, DOCS consolidated 48 housing units at 21 different correctional facilities, including Adirondack, where two units holding 92 beds were taken off line; Mohawk (four units holding 178 beds); Mt. McGregor (one unit, 36 beds); Oneida (two units, 95 beds); and Watertown (two units, 52 beds). Additionally, 144 beds have already been taken off line at the minimum security portion of Butler. Butler Minimum has been proposed for closure on Jan. 31, 2011.

Gov. David A. Paterson’s executive budget calls for DOCS to achieve savings through housing unit consolidation in the 2010-11 state fiscal year, which begins April 1. The budget proposal is under review by the state legislature.

In addition to Butler Minimum, the executive budget calls for the closure of the men’s minimum security Lyon Mountain in Clinton County, the men’s medium security Ogdensburg in St. Lawrence County and the men’s minimum security Moriah Shock Incarceration facility in Essex County in 2011.