Closing in on jail construction
Building of new Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, law enforcement center poised to begin in August
Construction of a new Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement center is expected to begin in August, the first step in a multi-year project designed to end the chronic overcrowding that has plagued the Dutchess County Jail for decades.
Deputy County Executive William O’Neill said Thursday that bids for the first phase of the project — the construction
of a new law enforcement center — came in at $34.4 million, just under the $36.5 million budgeted for the project.
O’Neill told members of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Transition Oversight Committee that the county is delaying a decision on the size of the new county jail, to be known as the Justice Transition Center, in the hopes that it can get a better handle on the size facility the county needs to build.
“We’re maintaining a certain amount of flexibility,” he said. “We want to wait and see what happens.”
Dutchess County has struggled with overcrowding at the county jail for
the better part of the last 40 years.
Under growing pressure by the state Commission of Corrections, the county hired a consulting firm to evaluate the county’s future jail needs. That firm, initially recommended the county build a new jail and transitional housing center that could house between 600 and 625 inmates, but that number was later refined to about 569.
The expected cost for the new justice transition center is roughly $154 million.
O’Neill said with the county seeing some success in combatting recidivism through new programs being offered to inmates, officials hope that number can be brought down to below 500.
“We’re delaying our final decision,” O’Neill said.
“We still don’t think 569 is the final number. We’re hoping to get it lower.
“Our hope was to have the whole facility under 500 beds,” he added. “I’m not sure we can get there, but that’s still our outside hope.”
O’Neill said the county is also looking at doublebunking in some of the cells, a move that, if approved by the state, would allow the county to house more inmates without the need for more cells.
One of the stumbling blocks to reducing the number of beds, O’Neill said, is the growing number of state parolees being housed at the county jail.
As of Friday, the county had 63 state parolees housed in the county jail. Parolees are incarcerated at the county jail when they have either committed a new crime or have
been charged with violating a condition of their parole.
O’Neill said that unlike a typical inmate, who can be released from jail on one of the county’s many alternative to incarceration programs, state parolees must remain in the jail until their cases are adjudicated.
He said without the parolee population, the county could probably build a jail that is 10 percent smaller.
O’Neill said plans call for construction of the new Law Enforcement Center to be completed in May 2019. Once that phase is finished, he said, the old Sheriff’s Office building can be demolished and construction on the new jail can begin.
He said construction of the new jail is expected to take 22 months.