MONTICELLO – Sullivan County District Attorney James Farrell told county legislators on Thursday that they are not getting the sentences they want for certain types of crimes prevalent in Sullivan County.
The biggest problem with state courts is drug offenders, specifically, those whose drug addiction drives them to violent crime. Farrell said the repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws created “all sorts of escape hatches” for people charged with drug offences and sentenced in state court.
“They are career criminals,” the DA said. ”And we’re looking at 20-year mandatory minimum in federal court. We can’t even come close to that.”
Farrell said in some cases, offenders get no more than 90 days in jail.
Another investigator on the county level would help, he said, but it is not in the tentative budget now under review.
Farrell noted that in other areas, including white collar crime, such as mortgage fraud, they are seeing better results.
“So that structure of how we’ve attacked crime, how we attack certain types of crime, is a success,” Farrell said. “And we partner with our federal counterpart, the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, who we have a very, very good relationship with.”
County Manager Josh Potosek’s 2016 budget proposal of $201 million comes in under the tax cap, with a tax levy increase of 1.7 percent.
