KINGSTON – Ulster County is considering an end to a policy of boarding incarcerated individuals transferred from facilities outside the county.
The “no more incarceration for profit policy” was briefly discussed during the county legislature’s Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee session Thursday evening, but no action was taken.
Sheriff Juan Figueroa said staffing shortages preclude his office from boarding certain inmates now.
“We don’t take any federal board-ins; we don’t have the staffing level to do that. Our facility was initially built to do that, but our issues right now are more of a staffing level issues with so many open positions and the lack of folks. We are now provisionally hiring folks because we have exhausted the list and for the last two to three years no one has interest in this line of work,” he said.
The bill’s sponsor, Legislator Joseph Maloney agreed to postpone any action on the proposal pending future exploration.
