As of last April, New York had sold only three of its 13 prisons that had closed since 2011, and only one, the former Mid-Orange Correctional Facility in Warwick in the Hudson Valley, had found a new use, as an office park.

Chateaugay is a rural town in the North Country with about 2,000 residents. The median income is approximately $40,000 a year. Nearly 28 percent of the residents are below the federal poverty level — almost double the percentage for the state over all, according to the census.

The prison, which had 234 inmates, helped the economy, said Assemblyman Billy Jones, a Democrat, who is a former corrections officer and a past mayor of Chateaugay.

“We were a large agriculture area at one time,” he said. “When dairy farming decreased in the late 1980s or early 1990s, a lot of people found jobs in these prisons. To see them closing, it’s hard on our economy.”

Mr. Jones said that, while he understood the changes to the drug laws, he believed the prison should have remained open because it was among the newer medium-security facilities, and it also provided a place for parole violators to get counseling.

“There has been no real, good plan when these facilities shutter,” he said.

Mr. David and others disagree. The prison is being put up for auction to avoid the lengthy process of requesting proposals, Mr. David said.

The State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision kept the buildings heated during harsh winters to keep them in good shape. Workers were offered jobs at other prisons, and the state is working with communities to develop economic proposals in places where prisons closed.