Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelly is exposing what he says are gaps in the county executive's plan to consolidate the Jamesville Correctional center with the county's jail in downtown Syracuse.
Shelley shared the information with a Tuesday meeting of the legislature’s public safety committee, where he said the legislature’s vote earlier this month to abolish positions at Jamesville and create them at the Justice Center leaves him shorthanded.
"We need to create positions just to stay even. If we're trying to get ahead with corrections and the Justice Center, we'd need to get back to around 103 positions," Shelley said.
County Executive Ryan McMahon had said a goal of the merger was to address a staffing shortage at the Justice Center, but Shelley has warned it wouldn’t work. Shelley also said McMahon’s plan to send inmates to other counties in case of an overflow won’t work, either.
"I've talked to every single surrounding sheriff, including Oneida County, they are full—we cannot take our people to their jails. You can't just do that anyway. You have to have the sheriff's permission. So if we get into an overage, I'm not sure where we will go," Shelley said.
Shelley said sending inmates to other counties also adds to the existing transportation challenges of getting them back to Onondaga County courts. Under the previous sheriff, the department was struggling to meet their legal obligation of getting inmates from the Jamesville facility to court in a timely manner. Shelly said he was able to solve the problem in his first three weeks in office.
The commission of corrections is currently reviewing the county executive’s plan. The sheriff must submit his own detailed plan by month’s end.
