CATSKILL – The new Greene County Jail, which is expected to break ground shortly, has been approved with 80 beds at a cost of $47 million. But, there is concern with state bail reforms to take effect in January the number of beds needed on the local level could be reduced by one-third to one-half.
Community activists have sought state legislation allowing Greene to house out inmates instead of building the new jail and former county legislator Lori Torgersen, a criminologist and supporter of housing out, said they have the ear of state lawmakers, who may adopt a law allowing that.
“We are currently right around 27 people in the Greene County Jail so realistically we are looking at 15 to 20 people going forward. It becomes a ludicrous situation to have to build a jail and so our county legislature as well as many, many, many community activists have gone to Albany and said, ‘Can you help us explicitly modify state law so there is no question whatsoever that we can, in fact, manage our population outside the county’,” Torgensen said.
The proposal would allow Greene to house out its inmates in adjacent county jails including in Columbia and Albany counties.
Currently, Dutchess County is rethinking the size of its new jail because of bail reform change which will result in fewer inmates being incarcerated pending disposition of their cases.
