January 01, 2005

Crime really does pay at the county's new jail

By Brendan Scott
Times Herald-Record

Goshen – Welcome to Orange County – the hottest year-round getaway for wayward Long Islanders who demand three hots, a cot and secure surroundings.

Faced with severe overcrowding at its own jails, Suffolk County has been shipping inmates to Goshen by the dozens and boarding them at Orange County's spacious new jail on Wells Farm Road.

Of course, Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois is happy to oblige.

His Suffolk counterparts are paying Orange County about $8,000 a day, making up the lion's share of the $3.5 million DuBois hopes to rake in this year as the state's top boarder of out-of-county inmates.

That will more than cover $1 million in overtime overruns and unanticipated utility costs at the jail this year. It also will help pay for two deputy positions for a new internal affairs team and pad the county coffers with $2 million in largely unexpected revenue.

"We're using facilities that would otherwise be vacant," DuBois said. "And we're using those facilities to everybody's benefit."

Sheriff's officials from two administrations have been preaching the benefits of boarding out-of-county inmates since before the county completed its 753-bed jail in 2001. The jail's dormitory-based, "direct supervision" design is intended to operate at or near capacity without straining staff.

But, until now, officials have focused much of their efforts on housing federal inmates and revenue has fallen far short of their goals. That's because the federal government has chosen to send many of its local inmates to places like Pike County, Pa., where it reserves a set number of beds each day.

In 2004, DuBois said, jail Administrator Dominick Orsino tapped a booming market by seeking sentenced, minimum security inmates from other counties. Some have come from Ulster, which has suffered long delays and massive cost overruns in its struggle to complete a new 402-bed jail in Kingston.

But most hail from Suffolk, which was forced to close two housing units at one of its already overcrowded jails last spring. On any given day last year, Suffolk inmates made up two-thirds of the average 115 boarders in Orange County Jail.

That total means Orange County now houses more than 20 percent of the out-of-county inmates in the state, according to the state Commission of Correction. Despite the boarders, the jail is still running about 150 inmates below capacity.

But the boom times may not last. Some 18 counties across the state are planning or building new jails, creating capacity that will weaken the market for out-of-county jail beds.

"It's great that we have it," said Legislator Patrick Berardinelli, R-Newburgh, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee. "But it's not something we planned for or that we can plan on in the future."