New York State’s troubled prison system is having ripple effects on jails in Onondaga County. Inmate murders, an illegal strike, and proposed prison closures are forcing changes in local staffing and inmate population.
More than 2,000 state prison officers were fired earlier this month for failing to return to work after a three-week long wildcat strike. That could help address the persistent shortage of corrections officers at Onondaga County’s jails and others across the state. Sheriff Toby Shelley told the legislature’s public safety committee Tuesday they’ve already heard from some of the fired guards.
“We had as of yesterday, 49 knocking on our door looking to get hired," Shelley said. "It’s a gray area who we can hire if you're watching the lawsuit in Oneida and Chemung Counties because of their certification. So we've been looking at how many of those people we can hire and stay within our budget.”
Shelley says even if they can, it won’t necessarily solve the county’s ongoing overtime problem at the Jamesville Correctional Facility or the downtown justice center. Governor Kathy Hochul signed an order barring the fired prison guards from future law enforcement and other civil service jobs in New York, but sheriffs and some state lawmakers are pushing back. Shelley hopes a judge issues an injunction and allows the guards to be hired on the county level.
Meanwhile, he said the governor’s proposed state prison closures pose additional logistical and financial challenges.
“If the governor closes five prisons, those inmates will be spread out to the sheriff's and she doesn't have to push them down. She just doesn't have to take them," Shelley said. "I have 61 inmates waiting to go to state prison as we speak. They get sentenced by a judge to go to state prison. They’re not taking any inmates. We're getting stuck on the local dollar doing state work.”
Shelley said unless he can hire the fired state guards, the combination of fewer corrections officers and more inmates will only get worse as the jail populations rise in the summer and peak in the fall.
