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Report focuses on alternatives to incarceration
By RACHEL M. TEAMAN
Reporter Contributor
The Regional Institute has released the findings of its assessment of the Erie County criminal justice system, part of an effort to identify strategies to alleviate jail overcrowding in the county.
Since 2000, the jail population at Erie County's two local facilities—the Erie County Holding Center and Erie County Correctional Facility—has spiked 18 percent, while capacity to house inmates has remained essentially stagnant.
In January 2007, the institute was commissioned by the Erie County Holding Center Task Force, with funding from the Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority, to identify factors that lead to overcrowding, devise solutions for strengthening alternative programs and pinpoint target groups for inmate population reduction measures.
"A national challenge, jail overcrowding is further complicated by skyrocketing jail construction costs and the changing nature of the jail population," said Kathryn B. Friedman, institute deputy director and project director for the criminal justice system assessment. "This effort seeks to address the issue at the core by examining the criminal justice system as a whole and exploring possibilities for reducing the jail population."
Factors contributing to overcrowding include a lack of alternatives to incarceration programs, a shortage of mental health and substance abuse diversion services and facilities, and data fragmentation throughout the county's criminal justice system.
For instance, 29 percent of the Holding Center population has a mental disorder, substance abuse problem or mental health issue, with these inmates incarcerated for one to seven days. In many cases, mental health programs and services could more appropriately handle these offenders, although Erie County is under-capacity in this regard.
Additionally, 85 days elapse between commencement of the pre-sentence investigation and sentencing, a process logjam presumably created by an understaffed county probation office. Local jails also are mandated by New York State law to confine inmates who violate their parole. These inmates spend an average of 21.5 days in the county jail.
The county's jail management information system is fragmented, inhibiting jail population management and planning. For instance, the system lacks complete inmate criminal and social history data and the county Sheriff's Office, the entity administering the system, is understaffed.
The institute's report, presented to the task force in mid-October for further action, identifies several measures to mitigate jail overcrowding, including forming a Criminal Justice System Coordinating Council to oversee such long-term initiatives as bolstering diversion facilities for inmates with mental health issues, processing inmates more efficiently and enhancing the jail management system as a policy and planning tool.
Recognizing that the oversized jail population is a serious problem requiring immediate action, the report recommends several measures for the short-term, including working to more efficiently complete pre-sentence investigation reports and sentence state offenders, which could potentially save up to 110 jail beds per day. Moreover, allowing offenders with 30-, 45- or 60-day sentences to serve half that sentence on electronic monitoring could open up to 42 jail beds per day.
The institute estimates that implementation of these measures, among others cited in the report, could reduce the number of jail beds in use by 260 to 300 per day.
"Moving forward will require patience and the collaboration of the county's criminal justice, legal, legislative and health and social service systems," said Friedman. "But there are substantial opportunities to alleviate jail overcrowding—a challenge that the county recognizes it must address."
Click here to view the final report.
A major research and public policy unit of UB, the Regional Institute plays a vital role in addressing key policy and governance issues for regions, with focused analysis of the Buffalo-Niagara region. A unit of the UB Law School, the institute leverages the resources of the university and binational community to pursue a wide range of scholarship, projects and initiatives that frame issues, inform decisions and guide change.