8/8/07 - County resumes talks about options for adding jail space

Bob Ellis/staff photographer The Cortland County Public Safety Building, left, and the Cortland County Jail as seen Tuesday from the top of the county courthouse.


(As published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

The prospect of adding on to the county jail, as opposed to building a new facility, raised numerous questions and objections Tuesday at a joint meeting of the Legislature’s General Services and Judiciary/Public Safety committees.

Still, that the topic of space needs at the jail on Greenbush Street is back on the table, after months of minimal public discussion, was encouraging to the Sheriff’s Department and to legislators.

“It’s unfortunate, but it takes so long in government to get something like this started,” said JPS Chairman John Daniels (D-Cortlandville), who invited construction management firm Bovis Lend Lease to the meeting to discuss the prospect of an addition to the current jail. “I just wanted to at least get us talking again so hopefully we can make some progress.”

Adding on to the jail — either directly above the facility or expanded out over the parking lot — could save the county from the cost and difficulty of acquiring property, representatives of Bovis, which has an office in Freetown, told committee members. An addition also would allow for the continued use of the current space as a jail, Bovis Vice President Bill Connor said, saving the county from a costly renovation for some alternate use.

Members of both committees were quick to question the long-term feasibility of adding to the building, noting the construction of the current jail had proved to be shortsighted. “We have to do it different from the way it was done before,” said Legislator Ron Van Dee (D-5th Ward). “That jail was outdated the day they opened the doors.”

The facility, constructed in 1990, houses a maximum of 69 inmates, but in recent years has surpassed that capacity, requiring the county to board inmates in jails elsewhere at a cost of $85 per day.

A study commissioned by the county and made public in January estimated the county needed a jail with capacity for at least 140 inmates, to allow for current capacities and potential future growth. Very preliminary estimates have suggested the cost of a new jail could reach $30 million.

Jim Mulherin, a senior project manager for Bovis, said that, contrary to the apparently cramped space on the site, there is room to build on to the jail to suit the county’s needs. Additional jail space potentially could be constructed adjacent to the building where the parking lot currently sits, Mulherin said, or it could be built above the parking lot or atop the current facility.

Daniels suggested adding to the jail could save the county money and keep the jail in an ideal location, adjacent to the County Courthouse, which would save on transportation costs. “I was thinking of it as an independent structure right above the one we have now,” Daniels said, noting his primary reason for bringing an expansion plan to the table was the difficulty the county has had in finding sites for the jail. “That way we keep the 50 cells we have now, maybe share the laundry and the kitchen and things like that, and we save a little by constructing a smaller facility … and we don’t have to purchase any property.”

Meanwhile Legislator Danny Ross (R-Cortlandville) suggested the county look at building over the parking lot and creating a two-story parking garage beneath the new construction. “At this point, I think it’s worth it to look at all our options,” Ross said.

Daniels did acknowledge though that building above the jail could increase costs, and Mulherin agreed. “There’s going to be a give and take no matter what you decide to do,” Mulherin said, noting a new facility constructed outside the city could increase transportation costs, but also could be built to require less staff.

Capt. Budd Rigg, who is in charge of the jail for the Sheriff’s Department, said after the meeting a two-story layout would require significantly more staff, and would represent a much larger cost increase than transportation costs if the jail were located farther from the Courthouse. Rigg also noted that doing construction around or above the jail could be met with serious resistance from the state Corrections Department.

Sheriff Lee Price said he was glad the jail was being discussed, but he also said a new jail with a one-story layout would be preferred. “How we design it is going to be important,” Price said. “I think we need a new modern jail, definitely.”

County Administrator Scott Schrader agreed, saying he felt it was a waste of money to try to expand the jail. “It isn’t bricks and mortar we have to worry about, it’s the cost of staffing, and we need to maximize the number of prisoners a corrections officer can supervise,” Schrader said. The most modern jails allow a single corrections officer to oversee up to 40 prisoners, Schrader said, while the current county jail allows a roughly 1 to 10 prisoner-to-supervisor ratio.

“To try to make the facility we have now meet modern day designs of modern jails is just impractical,” Schrader said. Legislator Carol Tytler (D-3rd Ward) asked if Bovis could provide an analysis comparing the potential staffing, transportation and other future costs of building a new building at another site, building an addition adjacent to the jail or adding a second story to the jail. “The other thing we have to look at is if we need to expand in the future,” Tytler said.

Connor said such an analysis was possible, but Bovis or the county would need to contract with an architectural firm and that such a move would require more certainty from the county in terms of possible locations for the jail.

“We really just wanted to help them get started in thinking about it,” Connor said after the meeting. “There’s a lot of questions that they’re going to need to answer before it’s time to move forward with anything.” Daniels was hopeful that discussion of the jail would continue at next month’s JPS meeting.

I informed many of the Legislators during the failed South Main Street Health Center project that there was a past study done (not the January 2007 report) that indicated that the existing jail could be expanded vertically. I believe that the overall jail size was reduced due to cost concerns at the time (1990).

I cannot speak to the operation and staff costs, but the bottom line is that a professional should be engaged to look at the options. One needs to look at initial costs, recurring costs, and extend over a life cycle. The professional should be an independent third party with NO ties to the County individuals. One cannot believe that staffing alone would far outweigh construction costs - likewise, it is hard to believe that current Codes would allow a jail to be built over a parking structure as one individual mentioned above...

I appreciate the initiative of the Democrats to begin the process. I still adamantly believe in a County master plan, however and I will push to develop and implement one.

I do not take the word of a few County employees as gospel and as the sure direction to follow down the path of our future. We need to take a collective look at ALL of our facilities and address our present and future needs in an organized, methodical method. This is the only way to ensure that the taxpayers are not overburdened.


CHECK OUT THE LINK from the 4/17/07 Cortland Standard article...

AND THIS LINK from 1/16/07. How can there be a $10 million difference in the cost in 6 months? Poor communication, lack of accountability, and plain indifference to the taxpayers. If you don't have the figures, don't say anything. Ridiculous. Someone needs to be gagged to keep from spewing inaccuracies.