Wednesday October 19, 2011
ZEKE WRIGHT
Staff Writer
TROY, N.Y. -- It’s a case of "waste not, want not" at the Rensselaer County Jail.
A state-mandated expansion of the jail was fought by county officials. Now, two years later, with the expansion concluded, the added beds have been put to use housing federal inmates and some from other counties.
Inmates from Vermont
Those inmates are expected to bring in millions in revenue for Rensselaer County. Officials hope next to begin importing inmates from Vermont.
"It’s a complex operation, housing dangerous people safely," said Rensselaer County Sheriff Jack Mahar, inside the jail during a tour of the Troy facility. Mahar was joined by County Executive Kathleen Jimino and members of the county Legislature for an official ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday to mark the completion.
The state Commission of Corrections had mandated the addition because the county was boarding a significant percentage of its inmates outside the area. While the number of county inmates has since declined, the added cells have been kept filled.
The phase one expansion took place over the span of two years and nearly doubled the facility’s capacity, from 243 cells to 473. The jail currently houses 412 inmates, Mahar said, 200 of whom are the county’s inmates and the remainder boarders from other counties and the federal prison system.
Mahar said the county had gone from spending $2 million a year to house some of its prisoners elsewhere to generating nearly $6 million in revenue annually by boarding inmates -- recouping roughly a quarter of the jail’s total operating expense.
"Initially, we didn’t want to do this, quite frankly," said Jimino, of the $44.3 million expansion to the facility. "(But) the state said we had to do this. The sheriff assured us it would be built as fiscally responsible as possible."
The final cost of the project came in below initial estimates of $47.5 million. In addition to a new wing, work was also completed in the prison kitchen, laundry room, and to the processing area. Groundwork was also literally laid for a future expansion, if the need arises, that would add an additional 192 beds.
Mahar said the jail may soon begin accepting inmates from other states, including neighboring Vermont. Currently, the nearest facility in Southern Vermont is Marble Valley Correctional Facility in Rutland, Vt., which contains 138 beds.
In February, the county Legislature issued an appeal to New York state to permit the county to board prisoners from Vermont. "We’re now working with the commission and sheriff’s association to finalize rules and procedures and how we will bring that to fruition," said the sheriff.
Mahar said he believed the jail to be the most technologically advanced in the state. Corrections officers can use PDA scanners to read inmate barcodes, Mahar said, to "determine who they are, where they are, (and) where they’re supposed to be."
A metal-detecting chair in the processing area scans incoming inmates for concealed weapons -- inside and out.
Among other features is a full mental health ward for screening inmates, classroom space where prisoners can earn their GEDs, a new dentistry chair, and a work training program that provides certification for learned culinary or janitorial skills, for example.
"There’s a lot of floor space here," said Mahar.
Jimino said that the majority of the expansion cost and increased operating expense was offset by the boarding revenue. "I think the residents of Rensselaer County can take great comfort in the fact that this expansion has happened in such a way that we are making good on the promise to minimize the impact on them," she said. "But they can rest assured that the people who need to be behind bars in Rensselaer County will indeed be behind bars in Rensselaer County."
"I’m happy to be at this moment with something that started as a state mandate and ended as a plus to the taxpayers of Rensselaer County," said Martin Reid, Republican majority leader in the county Legislature.
The jail houses inmates for various levels of incarceration, including violations up to and including Class A felonies, and for those sentenced to jail time, awaiting trial, or during grand jury action or disposition of parole proceedings. The average stay is relatively short, according to Mahar.
Officials said that the facility expected to process approximately 3,250 new admissions in 2011 -- up from 2,648 in 2010, 2,253 in 2009, and 2,552 in 2008.