ROCHESTER, N.Y. — County jail inmates who are supposed to be behind bars in New York state facilities are now going to be transferred, but not all at once.

What You Need To Know

  • A backlog of inmates waiting to be moved to state prisons has begun

  • Only a handful of individuals will be moved each week from jails to prisons

  • About 2,000 incarcerated individuals await transfer from county to state facilities 

The New York State Department of Corrections is now resuming intake of state-ready individuals from the county-run jails to the male state prisons.

But the backlog of inmates waiting in the counties is significant — some 2,000 of them. The transfers are not expected to happen fast and are coming at a cost to those counties.

“We're literally just getting by right now," said Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter. "We have probably taxed our staff as much as we can tax them. That means mandated overtime shifts to cover the extra pods that we opened up extra housing units. It's costing us about $45,000 a day in county taxpayer funds."

The sheriff was speaking about his county jail, which he says is currently housing 179 people who should already be in a state prison. Each week another 18 individuals are added to that list.

Neighboring Erie County has 129 on standby ready to be moved to the state prison system.

The backup of inmates began during the correction officer strike earlier this year, when DOCCS suspended the intake of inmates into the prison system. That was on Feb. 18. The department began accepting state-ready individuals to female facilities on April 14.

Erie County says it’s been advised that DOCCS plans to admit 75 to 100 individuals off that waiting list spread out across the entire state per week.

Baxter says this week, about four or five people will be taken off Monroe County’s hands.

"When the Monroe County average is 18 state-ready's a week and they're going to take four or five, it's not even a snail's pace. We're still the negative result here. We're happy it’s starting. We're just happy to get the momentum started. We'll support DOCCS in any way we can. Whether they're transporting them across state [or] wherever they're going to receive. But we're doing our part.”

“We’ve been doing it with overtime," said Erie County Jail Management Division Deputy Superintendent Bill Whalen. "Basically, our staff has been working very hard, a lot of hours, and I’m assuming this is going on all over the state. We have great people that work for us and we’ll get through it."

Whalen and Baxter say this is also a safety issue for the incarcerated and for the deputies.

Whalen believes it could take months before things are close to normal again.

The longer the state-ready inmates stay at the county level, the more sheriffs say it will cost their offices funds that were not budgeted for.

According to Erie County, DOCCS has said it will work to ensure every county with waiting lists is accommodated and it appreciates the patience and understanding of everyone during this recovery and rebuilding time.