The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

About 20 to 30 inmates a day, on average, already are
sent to stay at jails in other counties because the
Dutchess facility is full.

As a result, Dutchess could be paying to keep some 60
to 80 inmates a day at jails in other counties, come
May 1.

That would cost the county about $100 a day, per
inmate, plus roughly another $1 million a year for
costs related to transporting prisoners to and from
other counties for court appearances and meetings with attorneys, according to the county Legislature.

Jail generally crowded

The state Commission of Correction on Tuesday rejected
the county's request to extend variances that have
allowed the county to fill its jail to capacity, and
beyond, for several years now.

The most immediate effect will be that a greater
number of inmates will have to be sent to other
counties. As a result, more corrections officers will
have to work mandatory overtime shifts to get them
there and back, said Lt. Todd Mikus, head of the union
that represents the officers at the jail.

''It has the potential to be very dangerous for both
the staff and the inmates, traveling that much,'' said
Mikus, president of the Dutchess County Sheriff's
Employees Association. ''When things are bad, these
guys end up working double shifts two or three times a
week.''

The commission had warned the county for years that it
needed to expand its jail to relieve overcrowding
problems and turned up the heat in the fall, demanding
at least 300 beds be added on to the facility. But
county leaders have been unable to agree on how, or
even if, to proceed on a project estimated to cost
between $60 million and $70 million, not including
financing costs.

The county Legislature's Republican majority earlier
this year approved borrowing $560,000 to design the
jail expansion, but County Executive William Steinhaus
vetoed it.

Last month, Commission of Correction Chairman Alan
Croce rejected a proposal by the county to add only
150 beds to the jail while expanding programs that
provide criminals with alternatives to incarceration.

Addition fails to get support

Steinhaus, a Republican, and Democrats in the
Legislature have opposed any jail expansion.

While the Dutchess jail has 286 beds available for
inmates, the need to separate male and female, as well
as violent and nonviolent, inmates means only 257
cells will be available for housing inmates.

There were 303 inmates in the jail as of Tuesday
morning, with another 18 being housed in other
counties, said Gary Christensen, assistant jail
administrator. Another 47 inmates would need to be
shipped out to meet the new guidelines, he said.

That number, and the related costs, are only likely to
increase as the warmer weather coincides with more
arrests, he said.

With anywhere from 40 to 50 state parole violators at
the jail on a given day, the state could alleviate
Dutchess' overcrowding by taking custody of its own
inmates, Steinhaus said. State legislators
representing the area need to step up and rectify that
problem, he said.

''The state lawmakers, the senators and assemblymen,
and the state agency, are refusing to recognize they
created the problem,'' Steinhaus said.

Efforts to expand the jail are at a standstill.

Though the Republican county legislators have a
17-member, veto-proof majority, plans wouldn't go far
without cooperation from all sides, said Legislature
Chairman Brad Kendall, R-Dover.

''While the Democrats may be in the minority, they
have an obligation to put the good of Dutchess County
in front of politics on issues like this,'' he said.

Minority Leader Roger Higgins, D-Town of Poughkeepsie,
said his caucus simply disagrees with the three state commissioners, appointed by Republican Gov. George Pataki, who have demanded Dutchess expand the jail.

''This is not a political difference,'' he said,
''this is a philosophical difference.''

Anthony Farmer can be reached at apfarmer@poughkeepsiejournal.com

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