County considers its jail options

In September the full Legislature heard from SUNY New Paltz’s Center for Research, Regional Education and Outreach (CRREO) on a draft report, “A Collaborative Approach to County Jailing in the Hudson Valley.” The report compares and contrasts situations in five neighboring counties and offers both suggestions and statistics.

Dutchess County leads the state in housing out inmates. We presently provide over a third (34.7 percent) of the boarded-out county inmates in all of New York. CRREO’s report calls this a “crisis in jail capacity.” The net cost per inmate per day in Dutchess County is $227.88. This cost includes the fee to other counties to board out and transportation costs. In comparison, Orange County’s cost is $149.10; Ulster’s cost, which built a new jail in 2007, is $102.17.

In November 2009, Dutchess County traveled 15,127 miles over 299 trips to transport 1,040 inmates utilizing 1,030 hours of travel time for inmate transports. The county primarily boards inmates in Renselear County, but also uses Washington, Warren, Schoharie, Ulster, Putnam and Orange. Virtually all of the drivers, full-time correction officers, were paid overtime. In 2010, the overtime costs exceeded $3.8 million. Personnel costs in the jail’s $32 million budget have increased 77.3 percent since 2006.

Transportation costs are impacted also by court appearances. In 2009, Dutchess County traveled a total of 1,787 miles transporting inmates to and from local justice courts. If towns and villages would better coordinate the nights/mornings they held court, the CRREO report claims a 68 percent reduction to 575 miles.

CRREO also suggests reducing the number of town courts through mergers and consolidations, better utilization of video courtroom services and locating courtrooms directly into jails (instead paying the judge’s mileage).

Noting that regionally the largest challenge is mental health needs, the CRREO report recommends creating a regional secure mental health facility (not unlike the retrofitted Hudson River Psych Center jail annex I have been proposing). Both Orange and Columbia counties report that 75 percent of their current jail population receives psychotropic medication.

The report also suggests county jails utilize the state-run automated central pharmacy and nutritional services food production centers that serve all state prisons for medications and meals. Columbia County is currently the only county to do so.

The report indicates that in Dutchess County “some new construction is clearly needed,” but also suggests utilizing a regional-based boarding agreement at a centrally-placed overflow facility. It notes how Orange and Ulster reduce costs by boarding-in other county and federal inmates.

Additionally, it recommends converting closed state facilities into jail annexes, including the Green Haven Annex once used to segregate prison-farm workers. This minimum-security prison house large enough for 50-inmates was closed in 2009.

CRREO commended Dutchess County’s Alternatives to Incarceration program. Dutchess has more than 700 offenders currently in ATIs. More than twice of those who enter the criminal justice system (66 percent) are diverted into the ATI program.

A special legislative jail study advisory committee is presently meeting biweekly to consider strategies to alleviate jail overcrowding, lower costs and increase in-county jail capacity. They are expected to issue their own report in December outlining how next the County should proceed.

Michael Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and Millbrook in the County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

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