Byline: CATHY WOODRUFF Staff writer
TROY -- Rensselaer County Executive Henry Zwack, who has firmly opposed previous proposals to increase the capacity of the county jail, says he's examining new expansion ideas broached last week by Sheriff Daniel Keating to see if he can support them. In an interview, Zwack still expressed reservations about a large-scale addition of permanent cells and related debt, but he said Keating's current ideas may provide room for compromise.
Zwack said he'd like any new additions to have the flexibility for other uses, such as dormitories, if the county's need for ``hard cell space'' diminishes in the future.
``What we're looking for is a little more balance in everyone's consideration of the issue and not just a knee-jerk response that creates long-term debt and long-term operational costs,'' he said.
Regardless of Zwack's eventual conclusions, however, there are signs that veto-proof support for Keating's expansion request already may be building in the 19-member County Legislature.
The Legislature's Public Safety Committee, after hearing a report from Keating and jail Superintendent Robert Loveridge on the overflowing jail last week, quickly encouraged Keating and Loveridge to prepare a cost analysis for installing and staffing two new 56-bed units.
``We know we need it. It's just a matter of how much it's going to cost and how we're going to pay for it,'' said committee Co-Chairman Thomas Walsh, R-Brunswick.
June and July have brought record numbers for boarding out prisoners who cannot be accommodated with Rensselaer County's 267 beds. On some days during the past two weeks, the county has paid to house 90 inmates or more at other jails, and Keating said it now is costing the county about $60,000 each week to ``farm out'' prisoners.
While several new initiatives such as drug court, work release, house detention and day probation reporting have helped to divert dozens of potential inmates from the jail each day, jail officials say a backup of prisoners awaiting transfers to the crowded state prison system has once again filled the Rensselaer County Jail to overflowing.
ZWACK Public Safety Committee members Walsh, Republican Peter Durkee of Troy and Democrat Louis Polsinello Jr. of Rensselaer said any expansion ought to be enough to house all the extra local prisoners and provide space for prisoners from outside the county, as well.
While that was the original plan for the current jail, completed in 1992, the design was scaled back during construction and the county has seldom had sufficient space to take in other prisoners and earn the associated boarding fees.
``If we're going to to it, let's do it and get it done with,'' Walsh said of the expansion. ``We're going to get one shot at it, whether we do 56 or 96.''
The proposal under development by Keating is an alternative to the construction of the third ``pod'' that was sliced from the previous jail design. Instead, the county would order a quantity of individual ``steel box'' cells that could be configured as jail officials here wish.
``Whatever way we want to manufacture the thing, that can be done. That's the beauty of the thing,'' Keating said.
Keating said the probable best configuration would be in units including 56 boxes each, stacked in two floors. The installation would allow the county to continue its system of direct supervision, in which most inmates spend much of the day in a common area where they are directly monitored by correction officers, Keating said.
The sheriff said direct supervision has proven itself here as an effective way to maintain a more peaceful, secure jail with a smaller staff.
At an estimated cost of $25,000 per cell, the overall cost for 112 units would be about $2.8 million. Keating said it's possible that some of the units could be purchased with funding from the federal government, in exchange for a county commitment to make them available when needed by the U.S. Marshal's Service. The federal government also would pay daily lodging fees for each federal inmate housed here.
Zwack said the federal financing could help make the plan more agreeable, but the costs still could be too high.
``Our preliminary numbers show it is still more cost effective to farm out at the rate we are currently (farming out) than to incur long-term debt, long-term staffing and long-term operating costs,'' Zwack said.
Zwack also may find he has an unexpected ally in resisting the jail expansion. Democratic Legislator Robert Mirch of Troy said he's opposed to any addition of inmate beds at the jail.
``There was a commitment made to the people of South Troy that when the jail was built there would be no expansion,'' Mirch said. ``If we add 100 cells, they're going to be filled as soon as possible and we're still going to be boarding out 100 prisoners a day. We need to be bringing in some neighborhood businesses in South Troy, not expanding the jail.''
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