Cayuga Correctional Facility had New York’s highest vacancy rates for security and support staff in newly updated prison data: 42.3% of security positions and 31.7% of support positions were unfilled, according to the Correctional Association of New York.
The independent prison oversight organization, known as CANY, released its updated dashboards Monday. The staffing figures reflect Aug. 10, 2026, and put the Moravia facility’s vacancies above statewide rates of 26.2% for security staff and 15.1% for support staff.
Lower statewide vacancy rate reflects fewer budgeted jobs
Across New York’s prisons, the overall vacancy rate fell from 25% to 24%. CANY attributed much of that decline to the elimination of 737 budgeted positions between April and August, rather than an increase in the workforce. The actual number of employees also fell by roughly 280.
That means a lower vacancy percentage did not represent more employees working in the prisons. The rate measures unfilled positions against the number of jobs in the budget.
Health care positions had the highest statewide vacancy rate among the four broad staffing categories, at 28.7%. Program staff vacancies stood at 15.6%.
Collins Correctional Facility had the highest health care vacancy rate, at 56.6%. Bedford Hills Correctional Facility had the highest program staff vacancy rate, at 43.2%.
CANY’s staffing dashboard uses Department of Corrections and Community Supervision budget reports obtained through Freedom of Information Law requests. It compares budgeted and actual full-time-equivalent staffing at prisons, excluding the department’s central office, community supervision and employees assigned outside facilities.
The figures do not show how many employees are available for duty on a particular day. Employees counted in staffing totals may be on workers’ compensation, vacation or sick leave.
Prison population and releases both increase
New York’s prison population reached 33,807 on Oct. 1, up from 32,971 a year earlier, an increase of 836 people, or about 3%.
CANY also reported a 5.3% year-over-year increase in releases. The third quarter of 2026 recorded 2,755 releases, up 3.1% from the previous quarter.
The two dashboards measure different things. The population dashboard provides a snapshot on the first day of each month. The releases dashboard counts release and discharge transactions, rather than unique people; a person can appear more than once for the same incarceration sentence.
CANY is authorized under state law to visit and examine New York’s prisons and assess conditions, treatment and policies. Readers can explore the updated staffing, population and release dashboards, along with facility-level information on its interactive prison map.
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