Sullivan jail issue heats up

Will the cost bankrupt the county?

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — The good news is that officials in Albany will go along with a plan to build a new jail with room for 256 inmates instead of the 305, and that will bring the cost down by as much as $40 million. The bad news is that a new jail will still cost taxpayers at least $80 million, and will come at a time when Sullivan County residents can’t afford a significant tax increase to pay for it.

At a meeting at the government center on November 18, county manager David Fanslau said that the chairman of the New York State Commission of Correction (COC), Thomas A. Beilein, said that he would come to the county to explain to residents the COC’s position on the proposed new state-mandated county jail.

The date for the visit has not yet been set, but it should be a session that is well attended.

There are county officials and residents who advocate that the county should resist the COC’s clear choice that the county build a new jail rather than renovate the existing one. But, it seems unlikely that the commission will be persuaded to go in that direction.

Lawmaker Leni Binder, who has been on the jail committee since at least 2002, said that when the jail process began, the COC did studies that showed that the existing jail could not serve the county’s needs in the future.

One reason is that the lot on which the jail is built is simply not large enough for an expansion outward, and the COC does not approve of the vertical expansions, or jails with multiple stories, outside of large cities. Among the reasons for the COC’s opposition to vertical facilities are security issues, such as guards being able to best observe inmates and issues related to transporting prisoners in enclosed elevators.

Binder also said that vertical jails are more expensive to operate than those on a single floor. She added that acquiring more land around the current jail site is not practical. She said, “It’s the heart of a village, you can’t just start taking buildings and closing streets.”

County chairman Jonathan Rouis agreed that renovating the current jail is not going to work. He said, “Prior to embarking on the process a few years ago, we did look into the option of renovating or trying to retrofit the existing facility. And we were going to pull the reports that were done at that time and update them if necessary. But it just wasn’t fiscally or operationally prudent at the time, or now.”

The bonding for the funds to build the jail won’t happen until 2011, but there is a growing cry from property owners who live near the proposed site on Old Route 17 in Monticello, and also in the rest of the county, that local officials should look again at the option of renovation or other options.

Mike Taylor, manager of Combines Energy Services of Monticello, in an email exchange with Binder, said lawmakers should rally the public to resist the COC. He wrote, “You tell every taxpayer they are going to get a 20 or 30 percent tax increase and you’ll see a hell of a lot more angry taxpayers that are willing to call everyone in Albany.”

Also, among those calling for more exploration of other options is lawmaker Alan Sorensen. He said, “As the budget stands right now, there’s no way that we can afford this additional debt. And I was serious when I said that if we’ve got to incur another $80 to $100 million in debt, it could move us in the direction of looking at bankruptcy as a possible option.

“It’s another unfunded state mandate that’s being shoved down our throats; we can’t afford it and we need to look at alternatives that would be far more cost effective, while also ensuring that the jail employees are working in a safe environment,” he said.

The jail is now officially the oldest in the state and, by all accounts, has major physical problems. The locks on the cell doors are so old that in order to get parts for them, officials are contacting other counties that have kept similar locks for use in museum displays.

A majority of county lawmakers are concerned that if they do not proceed down the road to building a new jail, the COC will padlock the existing facility for safety reasons, which could bring enormous costs to the county to pay for the boarding of all the inmates in jails in other counties and transferring them back and forth for court and lawyer visits.