Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley continues to question the feasibility of consolidating the Jamesville correctional center with the downtown Justice Center after the sheriff satisfied a deadline earlier this week by providing his merger plan to the county legislature and state commission of corrections.
Shelley says his plan differs from the county executive’s in many ways. For one, Shelley insists there won’t be enough space at the downtown justice center if health or safety situations arise among inmates.
“Classification is so important to understand and how you run your jail," Shelley said. "It's never about how many spare beds you have, it's about who can be together in those beds. I mean, seven people can tie up 50 beds on you. It just depends on who those people are.”
Shelley says the merger also likely won’t address the staffing shortage at the justice center like the county executive and legislature believe it will. He says up to half of the 80 corrections officers say they don’t want to move downtown.
“What happens if 20 to 40 people from Jamesville don't want to come downtown? That just adds to the problem," Shelley said.
Last week, he hosted jail administrators from other counties to solicit their input. They suggested that an independent agency conduct a feasibility study.
“That outside group that has zero interest in Onondaga County other than to help us. That's the direction they said to go. I invited the county executive and the county attorney to come meet with that group. The county attorney did, in fact, come and talk with that group. And they answered questions and gave advice. There's just a wealth of experience and information.”
Shelley says the county should be planning for future needs, not basing decisions on what’s happened over the last three years. For example, he says if they run out of space, the county executive’s plan to build an addition to the justice center isn’t practical.
“Even to build a fourth tower, you need a place like Jamesville just to put people while you build the tower. There's just so many dynamics that go into this," Shelley said. "And we can't go backwards. If we make a move to do this, we can't get back to where we started. You can't just turn the lights off and turn it back on. It's not that simple.”
The measures approved by county lawmakers last month call for Jamesville to be closed by April first.
