Suffolk County’s jails are being pressured to carry onto 125 felons who have been speculated to be transferred upstate — with officers blaming state authorities chaos for the delay, The Publish has realized.
County Govt Ed Romaine blamed Gov. Kathy Hochul and mentioned housing a rising quantity of state prisoners is placing workers in a harmful scenario as taxpayers are on the hook for a whole lot of hundreds in estimated additional prices.
“They’ve been convicted and are speculated to be in state prisons they usually’re not as a result of the state is simply not taking them,” Romaine advised The Publish.
“Now, why is the state not taking them?” the Republican added. “Properly, [Hochul] fired 2,000 corrections officers placing for higher working situations and she or he’s closing prisons across the state.”
Below state regulation, inmates sentenced to arduous time in state jail are speculated to be transferred upstate inside 10 enterprise days. However Romaine mentioned that has modified within the aftermath of labor unrest with the corrections officer union and Democratic governor.
He mentioned the delays at the moment are inflicting complications throughout the system, from administration to the inmates themselves.
Many of the detainees within the two county jails — in Riverhead and Yaphank — are individuals accused of low-level crimes which can be being held for trial and haven’t been convicted. They’re now bunking alongside convicted criminals who have been supposed to solely go by the system.
Romaine added that the inflow of roughly 125 felons is elevating critical security and administration considerations for workers.
“Our jail workers are already unfold skinny,” Romaine wrote in a letter to Gov. Hochul in Could obtained by The Publish. “I perceive that the state faces related staffing challenges, however it’s unfair to shift this burden to the County with minimal monetary compensation and little to no collaboration.”
The state Division of Corrections and Group Supervision blamed the backlog on system-halting staffing shortages that have been sparked after the state fired 2,000 corrections officers who participated in an unauthorized, almost month-long strike in March.
Romaine shot again that the staffing shortages ought to be Suffolk’s downside.
“The regulation says they’re state prepared, then they have to be in state prisons, not native jails,” he mentioned.
New York State is reimbursing Suffolk $100 per day for each inmate caught within the county jails, however Romaine mentioned the county pays $250 per day for every, that means taxpayers are on the hook for the additional $150.
“The warden and his workers calculate that we’ve expended roughly $280,000 in extra of what we’ve acquired from the state to accommodate these state prepared however unclaimed prisoners since February,” Romaine wrote within the Could letter.
Extra inmates in lockup means extra guards are wanted to work — with extra time beyond regulation prices, he added.
Romaine warned that if the backlog continues, it might result in harmful overcrowding and unravel the work the county has been doing to enhance jail situations.
“That is unsustainable long run,” he mentioned.
