Not many novels deal with issues involving New York state government, but Stewart O'Nan's ''The Good Wife'' is an exception.
The four-year-old book, which I just finished for a book club I'm about to join, is the story of a woman from Owego, Tioga County, whose husband is sent to prison for murder.
Over the 28 years he is behind bars, she manages to raise a son and keep in touch with him first by making the two-hour trek to the maximum-security prison in Auburn, Cayuga County, to visit him for a decade, then all the way to Dannemora (only about an hour from Montreal) and then to a medium-security prison an hour beyond that- a round trip of about 14 hours.
Their relationship is greatly helped by occasional "family-reunion'' weekends that some of the prisons allow a few times a year, but hurt by sometimes surly, unreasonable guards and the remoteness of the prisons.
The novel is mostly about her efforts to survive daily, but along the way it paints a grim picture of the prison system, where it seems bureaucracy and heartless correction officers conspire to make her already difficult life that much harder.
That's the opposite of the department's policy, said spokesman Erik Kriss, who pointed out that many inmates from the metropolitan area (the vast majority of the system's 61,000 inmates) are transferred to institutions closer to home as their sentences wind down. He said the prison officials understand the importance of retaining family ties for prisoners' adjustments after they are released.
The reality is "mixed,'' according to Bob Gangi of the state Correctional Association, the leading prison-watchdog group in the state.
He said there's no doubt that Commissioner Brian Fisher and his top staff understand the issue, but that it doesn't always filter down to the institutions.
"There are times when prisoners are sent far away for no good reason,'' he said. His group also receives complaints from women who feel harassed by guards when they make their visits.
O'Nan's position is clear, but the novel makes no claim to accurately depict state policy. But it does provide an occasion for citizens to ask questions about how the relatives of inmates are treated.
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Similarly, Jay, there has long been an issue with Albion as a female medium-security prison with many single mothers from downstate. My sense has been that for years now DOCs has worked to improve this, with transportation from the city for kids and families on weekends. Plus, after bursting through the 80s and 90s, the female prison population is also on the decline. But, as you note, keeping a family intact when part is incarcerated is no easy task.
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Gary Craig