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Jail costs continue to handcuff county spending

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-962726.mp3

Poughkeepsie, NY – Counties across New York are trying to cope with increasing costs for nearly every operation these days, and jails are no exception. WAMC's Hudson Valley Bureau Chief Greg Fry reports that the cost of running county jails continues to be a costly function

Each county has one, and the cost of operating a jail can run into the tens of millions of dollars. It's a problem that New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen Acquario is quick to talk about.

Acquario says that the problem of overcrowding, and also costs, hasn't been as large in recent years, as state inmates were taken out of county jails.

The questions surrounding prisons, jails, and detention centers have been asked for decades. What about alternatives to incarceration? Does New York State need all the prisons it has? The answer to that last question seems to be no, as the latest budget agreement in Albany calls for the reduction of 37-hundred beds. In fact, a group of lawmakers representing Westchester County, led by Assemblywoman Sandy Galef and State Senator Suzy Oppenheimer, has written to Governor Cuomo, asking that the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining be closed, in an effort to help the community of Ossining, where the prison lies, get back on its feet financially.

Acquario maintains that the state has had excess prison bed capacity, but has still mandated that counties expand their jails.

He points to the example of Dutchess County, where a fight over whether or not to expand the county's jail facilities stretches back into the nineties. In recent years, Ulster County received headlines for the construction of a new jail and law enforcement center in Kingston, which was more than 20-million dollars over budget, and was not completed on time. It's tough to find anyone who thinks the construction project was a success, but moving forward, Ulster County Executive Mike Hein says the focus needs to be on shared services.

A 2009 report released by the Center for Research, Regional Education, and Outreach at the State University of New York at New Paltz makes that point as well, citing a 25 percent increase in jail costs for eight Hudson Valley counties over a five-year span from 2003 to 2007.

John Clarkson was the former Executive Director of The New York State Commission on Local Government Efficiency. He's now with the non-profit public policy research organization, Pattern for Progress. Clarkson says they'll continue to take a look at the growing costs of jails, and how to improve the quality of outcomes within the jails.