The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

New York State Network for Jail Alternatives and Safer Communities
90 Pennsylvania Avenue, Massapequa, NY

For Immediate Release
October 25, 2004

Contact:
Dana Kaplan, 917-821-5142
Maurice Mitchell, 202-361-1998

Jail Building Spree Sweeps New York State State Mandates Force New Construction and County Debt

While Governor Pataki is closing prisons, county legislators across New York are being confronted with State mandates to build new or expanded county jails at county expense. For many counties, these new jails represent the largest capital projects in local history with significant impact on county debt, local taxes, and funds available for schools, healthcare and housing.

Since 1995, thirty-six of New York’s fifty-eight counties have built or are constructing or considering new jails. As the state’s crime rate and prison population plummets, local jail populations are experiencing unprecedented growth. From mid-year 1995 to mid-year 2004 the New York State prison population decreased from 68,335 to 64,778, a decline of more than 5%. During the same time period, the population housed in New York State county jails increased from 13,853 to 16,079 – an increase of close to 16% of the population.

Some of the factors driving up New York’s jail populations are similar to those affecting jail populations throughout the country: increased arrest rates for low level crimes, particularly in poor neighborhoods where many residents fail to meet bail, increased detention of non-citizen immigrants in county facilities; and a rising number of mentally ill persons formerly residing in mental health facilities.

But counties in New York also must contend with the State Commission of Corrections (SCOC), a small state agency, controlled by three Commissioners appointed by the Governor, which oversees prison and jail conditions in the state of New York. While historically the SCOC has focused on issues such as training correctional officers, regulating the items of clothing received by inmates and overseeing conditions of confinement, in the last nine years the agency has emphasized another mission: mandating construction of new jails or expansion of existing facilities to a timetable and size set by the state.

Some counties have spent taxpayer funds to study the problems leading to jail overcrowding and concluded that programs supervising non-violent offenders in the community; intensive case-management of populations like the mentally ill, and reforms of bail and arrest practices would reduce or eliminate the need for new construction. However, county officials who have challenged the state’s ‘build or else’ conclusions have found that ‘variances’ regularly granted them by SCOC over the years have been abruptly withdrawn, forcing shipment and housing of their inmates elsewhere. Other counties have been threatened with litigation.

Maurice Mitchell, of the New York Network for Jail Alternatives and Safer Communities, states, “The New York State Commission of Corrections is forcing us to build new jails, but they aren’t the ones paying the costs. It’s the county taxpayers who will bear the fiscal burden, and low- income communities who will feel the loss of funding for other services. Unless the SCOC wants to pick up the bill, they should allow us to pursue the alternative programs that have already been proven to make our communities safer and that save us money instead.”


Some of the counties currently undergoing or contemplating jail expansion in New York State include:

Ulster County: A new 500-bed jail currently stands 70% completed, a year behind schedule, and more than 20% over the initially projected costs. County lawmakers wondering whether they will be able to fill the massive new jail are looking to other counties, the state, and the federal government to provide inmates to make up the difference.

Tompkins County: Lawmakers are currently considering a legal challenge to the SCOC’s mandate to the county to build a new jail, as the size of the facility prescribed by the SCOC is far greater than the 105 bed facility that county legislators and community residents have determined to be necessary.

Suffolk County: The largest capital construction project in the history of Suffolk County – a projected $215 million, 1,150-bed jail – has met with stiff opposition from a broad array of residents, organizations and a few local officials. County legislators say that the state has left them with no choice but to begin building in 2006, despite plans offered by the Probation Department to decrease the population of a current jail. This summer the county sued SCOC over its decision to close two wings of its current jail, necessitating the expenditure of $5 to $10 million to ship displaced prisoners elsewhere.

The New York State Network for Jail Alternatives and Safer Communities is a network of community members throughout the State of New York who are concerned about the exorbitant economic and social costs of massive jail expansion, and seek to implement alternative to detention programs and reforms to build healthy communities and ensure long-term public safety instead.
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New York County Legislators React to State Mandated Jail Expansion

Tompkins County

"We're the ones in charge of the money raised from Tompkins County
taxpayers. They're saying we have to build a jail to accommodate the number of prisoners they think might be incarcerated 20 years from now. We think the number will be significantly less. Well, it's our money, and how it gets spent is our call, not theirs."

"I had reconciled myself to a 104-bed jail with the spine for 196 beds. The Legislature as a whole agreed unanimously on that. They (the commission) have eliminated that option. The option they offer us now is a very big jail or nothing. Given that, the only reasonable choice is not to build at all."

- Tim Joseph, Chairman of Tompkins County Legislature, D-Ithaca

Allegany County

"I think the bottom line becomes the question: how can we afford not to? I really feel like were being backed into a corner here (by the Commission of Corrections)…"

-Brent Reynolds, Chairman of Public Safety Committee , R-Alfred

"We don't really have a choice but to go ahead and build a new jail. Allegany County can not afford a $30 million jail. It already has more than $24 million in bonded indebtedness. Our taxes are too high and they are driving property values into the ground."

-Rod Bennet, R-Granger, County Legislature

Essex County

“(If the commission wants the county to have a bigger jail, the commission should be prepared to pay the difference)…that sounds like a mandate to me. I’d like to know where he thinks we’re getting the money. The state should pay it.”

“I could care less what message we send to the Commission of Correction right now, after what they did to us. We need to do what’s best for the county.”

-Supervisor Walter Rushby Junior, R-Moriah

Suffolk County

“Why didn't it occur to anybody that the system wasn't communicating when we were under the gun from the State to make this decision? Now this Legislature has chosen to go down a path of build first and gain information second, something that I vehemently disagree with.”

-David Bishop, County Legislature, D-Babylon

Chatauqua County

I think that it is unfortunate that we have come to this whole process. I think the State of New York has put forth standards that don’t take into account the County’s ability to pay and the taxpayer’s ability to foot the bill also.

-James Caflisch, County Legislature, R-District 21

“In good business practice, I feel that we as a County should have been saving dollars from the beginning of time when this issue first came in front of us. We continue to go to the twelfth hour in arriving at dollars which in the long run, costs the taxpayer more money because of bonding and borrowing. I feel that we should be looking at the reason that we are having an increase in population in our jail. With a stable population, something is drastically wrong if we are causing our population to commit more and more crime. There should be a major movement in our society to reduce the crime that is occurring rather than providing facilities and acknowledging that we have more and more criminals. Because of that, I will not support this bond issue.”

-Doug Richmond, County Legislature, R-District 22

“The reasons that some of the people are in there and I just can’t bring myself to vote for that much money when I personally feel that a large percentage of those people don’t have to be in the jail at this particular time. There are other alternatives.”

-Legislator Alvin Crowe, County Legislature, R-District 4

Ulster County

"It's either a lack of communication or a lack of fiscal discipline. The point is, here's half a million dollars of taxpayer dollars being wasted."

-Peter Kraft, County Legislature, Democrat

''It's a catastrophic failure of leadership. The public deserves better”
-Richard Parete, D-Boiceville, County Legislature

“Do Not Pass Go! Taxpayers Ante up $40 million as County, State Lock into Contest over Size.” Ithaca Journal: July 3, 2004.
Gordon, Jim. “Arresting Figures: More Staff Hired, but Jail Won’t be Complete until December at the Earliest.” Woodstock Times: April 1, 2004
Liebler, Shane. “County Takes Next Step Toward Jail; Legislators: $24 million complex mandated by COC”.
Wellsville Daily Reporter: March 16th, 2004.
McKinstry, Lohr. “Essex Supervisors to Decide Jails Issues: Will Seek State Extension.” Press Republican: April 29, 2003.
McKinstry, Lohr. “120 Beds…or Else: State Mandates Size of Essex Jail”. Press Republican: August 22, 2003.
Wasserman, Gabriel. “Overruns, Delays Mar Jail Project: Democrats in Ulster Seek Investigations”. Poughkeepsie Journal: April 1, 2004.
Chatuuqua County Legislature Minutes; June 23, 2004, Public Safety & Public Information Committee, Mayvile, New York.
Suffolk County Legislature Minutes: March 16, 2004, Public Safety Committee Meeting, Hauppauge, New York.