By Don Lehman
The Post-Star
QUEENSBURY — The state Commission of Correction has told Warren County officials that the county jail is understaffed, and the county could be made to hire up to 15 additional guards.
Warren County Sheriff Bud York said the commission, which oversees county jails in New York, notified his office recently that a preliminary staffing survey found that the jail will need 10 to 15 more correction officers to staff Warren County Jail.
The jail has a staff of 74 officers, but has had to increasingly pay out overtime to staff security posts as the jail population has grown and the jail has had more inmates on suicide watch and medical watch. Medical watches at Glens Falls Hospital require two officers at the inmate’s hospital room for the duration of the inmate’s hospital stay.
Jail overtime was expected to top $500,000 this year, after rising to $350,000 last year.
The jail has not had a commission staff analysis since it opened in 2004. It has been operating with the staffing numbers that were set by the commission for it to open, but the staffing numbers were not reviewed since as the jail added inmates and adjusted to changing inmate populations.
“The question is how many new (security) posts do we have to have, and how many are we going to have to add?” York asked. “We know we are going to have to add officers, we just don’t know how many yet.”
Having to hire 10 new officers would add about $600,000 to the jail budget when starting salaries and benefits are added together. York said the new hires would drastically cut the overtime tab, however.
Warrensburg Supervisor Kevin Geraghty said county leaders hoped they would be given the opportunity to phase in any new staffing.
A review is also ongoing as to ways to cut overtime, including prompt review of inmates judged to be suicide risks so that suicide watches can be reduced.
“We’ve known we have to look at overtime costs. We feel a lot of it is suicide watches, and when they have to go to the hospital,” Geraghty said. “We are looking at steps to rectify some of that.”
State Division of Criminal Justice Services spokesman Walt McClure said the review of the jail’s staffing is ongoing and is expected to be completed early next year.
Warren County supervisors on the county board’s Sheriff’s Committee plan to tour the jail during their meeting next month. No date has been set for that meeting.
“We want all the supervisors to see the jail, see how the pod system works,” Geraghty said.