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| State Orders Closure of N.Y. County Jail |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/18/2003 |
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A 133-year-old jail infested by pigeons and rodents was ordered by the state to close within 30 days, officials said. Tuesday's decision to close the jail in the Adirondacks was due to an engineering report ordered by the state Commission of Correction, which found numerous fire code and maintenance violations. The state contracted C.T. Male Associates to compile the report after commission staff toured the Essex County Jail last fall, spokesman Scott Steinhardt said. While not surprised by the findings, county officials did not expect to have so little time to relocate prisoners. A new jail was being planned for the county, but it won't be completed for two or three years. ''The state doesn't hire an engineering firm to come and check your jail without cause,'' county Sheriff Henry Hommes said. ''But it's still upsetting when you actually hear the words.'' Officials will have to scramble to find beds for the 20 inmates at the jail and has room for 24 prisoners. The county averages about 40 inmates at any given time, some of whom are boarded at facilities in other counties, officials said. ''It doesn't meet modern codes. Still, it's 130 years old and we've never lost anybody there,'' said Dale French, chairman of the County's Board of Supervisors. The three-story 15,000 square-foot jail building in Elizabethtown, near Vermont, was built in 1870. Under the order, the first floor of the jail will remain open for booking and processing purposes. The state is also allowing the county continue using five cells in the old jail, providing prisoners are not held there for more than five days. The county does not expect to cut any jobs as a result of the closing, as officers will still need to guard and transport prisoners, county Public Safety Chairman Gerald Morrow said. But the decision and the need to find alternate accommodations for inmates could mean higher county taxes, officials said. French estimated the jail's closing will cost the county between $650,000 and $700,000. ''For this little county that is not chump change,'' French said. ''It's going to cost us between 7 to 8 percent of our tax levy not counting everything else that's going up.'' According to the report, the building is in serious violation of state property maintenance and fire codes. The violations listed in the report include infestation by rodents and pigeons, inadequate ventilation, structural instability and electrical hazards. In its findings, the firm said conditions at the jail did not amount to ''imminent danger requiring emergency measures.'' But the report opens the county to possible lawsuits if someone were to be injured at the facility, said Frederick Lamy, commissioner of the state commission. |
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