A state Supreme Court judge on Tuesday ruled that Onondaga County has the authority to close the Jamesville Correctional Facility and County Executive Ryan McMahon is planning to move forward with that, a spokesperson told Spectrum News 1.
The county in December 2022 said they would consider a plan to close the facility and move inmates and employees to the downtown Justice Center, citing a declining inmate population at Jamesville and staff shortages at the downtown facility, as well as meeting the requirements of a lawsuit settlement that mandates the county improve its ability to get inmates from the Justice Center to arraignments. Officials at the time said it would save the county millions of dollars a year. The Jamesville facility costs about $20 million to operate. In February 2023, legislators approved effectively recategorizing corrections officers to become deputy sheriff positions.
Onondaga County Sheriff Toby Shelley filed a lawsuit last June, arguing the county Legislature didn’t have the power to pass a law, 1-2023, that would close the facility and move inmates downtown. The law says the sheriff manages and operates the jail, while the county can decide what buildings are purchased and used.
The judge's ruling said that "the county's discretion over the acquisition and disposition of its buildings or facilities is not an encroachment on the Sheriff's role in the housing and control of incarcerated individuals."
Shelley has said his powers have “definitely” been diminished by the new law. He estimated it costs about $6 million annually to move overflow inmates to other facilities, and noted there aren’t nearby prisons that could handle the roughly 80 inmates Jamesville currently has.
Shelley was elected county sheriff in November 2022, replacing Gene Conway, who agreed with McMahon the next month to shut down Jamesville and move the inmates. Shelley had asked county leaders for a year to figure out where inmates could be moved, but said the county declined.