The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's chief counsel, Kevin Law, expressed shock and concern at the soaring cost and implored the officials to come up with savings to salvage the project. "We signed on for a plan for a reasonable correctional facility," Law said, not one that would "blow the taxpayer out of the water."

Ardent jail plan critic Legis. David Bishop (D-West Babylon) said "this project is either going to bankrupt the county or its taxpayers."

Last spring, Suffolk lawmakers approved borrowing $185 million for construction, shaving off $25 million from Levy's original proposal. The new jail, which would be located at the site of an existing county minimum security facility just south of Long Island Expressway Exit 67, would become the county's main corrections facility, replacing the crowded and outmoded Riverhead jail.

But yesterday, county planning consultants from Hauppauge-based Wiedersum Group and Lafayette, Colo.-based Voorhis Associates, Inc. raised the projected cost by $101 million, or 55 percent, to $286 million, while increasing the planned size of the 1,280-cell facility by 45 percent.

What's more, they projected that the facility would cost about $20 million a year in interest and principal, which would reach $435 million by 2030 if the jail is constructed and completed on time.The new estimates released yesterday do not include annual operational costs, which the Budget Review Office had earlier estimated at $50 million. The $434.6 million total cost for building and financing the jail translates into a per-cell cost of $339,531.

During the briefing with officials, the planners said they increased the projected cost due to myriad factors including the transfer of Sheriff's Department operations from Riverhead. They also said prior projections underestimated the size of recreational space and inmate holding facilities. Public Works Committee Chairman Legis. Allan Binder (R-Huntington) feared even higher costs. "While this is a big number, it could even go up," Binder said.

Lawmakers have wrestled with a new jail since 2003, when the state Commission of Correction warned against overcrowding at Suffolk's existing Riverhead and Yaphank facilities. The commission had allowed the county "variances" to house the overflow inmates in recreation and common areas until a new jail or alternatives were established. But later the commission declined variances and Suffolk was forced to begin housing inmates at upstate jails at a rate of $85 per day per inmate, or $22 million annually.

According to an aggressive schedule laid out by the state Commission of Correction, Suffolk County must complete design plans and specifications by the end of this year and put out to bid the construction of the first phase and its 680 cells by Feb. 1 of next year.

The county must break ground on the new facility by July 1 of next year or face the threat of losing the variances that allow them to house extra inmates. Levy is expected to submit his proposed capital budget for 2006 and three-year capital program for 2006-08 to legislators by April 15.

Activists who have been opposing the jail outright were even more outraged, saying county leaders have not explored enough alternatives to incarceration.

"That could be close to half-a-billion dollars in debt," said Maurice Mitchell, lead organizer of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, referring to the debt service on the jail. "It speaks clearly that we need alternatives that will be cheaper and more effective than incarceration."

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