Start spreading the prison closing news

With apologies to Ole Blue Eyes, yesterday’s New York Times containing this story about prison closings has me in song parody mood.   Here are the basics of the news story:

The Spitzer administration announced on Friday a plan to close a medium-security prison and three minimum-security camps upstate, citing the declining crime and prison population across the state. Officials said the move would save taxpayers upward of $70 million in the next few years.

The closing of the four prisons — the medium-security Hudson Correctional Facility in Columbia County and the minimum-security camps Pharsalia in Chenango County, Gabriels in Franklin County and McGregor at Mount McGregor Correctional Facility in Saratoga County — will be felt in the counties where the prisons have provided steady, good-paying jobs.

“We are very concerned with his plan, especially in light of the governor’s push to release criminals out of prison early through the parole system,” said Mark Hansen, a spokesman for the Republican Senate majority.  “We have some very serious questions about his plan. We want to see his justification for this.”  Mr. Hansen said Mr. Spitzer’s announcement was particularly distressing to lawmakers whose districts are home to the centers and whose communities depend on prison employment.

Now, channeling my nerdy Weird Al, here goes:

Start spreading the news, they’re leaving today
soon again to be a part of it — New York, New York
These pisoners shoes, they are longing to stray
Right back to the very heart of it — New York, New York

They’re gonna wake up in a city with crime rates down
And think they’re king of the hill — but few jobs in town

These prison town jobs, are melting away
They’ll need a brand new job to work — in old New York
If they can do it there, they can do it anywhere
Other states should follow New York, New York.

I don’t know what’s more surprising and disturbing: (a) the fact that Gov. Spitzer opponents seem bother by declining crime and prison population across New York, or (b) that most other states throughout the nation cannot figure out ways to follow the great achievements that New Yok has found a way to achieve.