OTSEGO, NY - Otsego County's female corrections officers will be going back to school starting today, according to Undersheriff Bruce Carroll.

The county has nine, part-time female corrections officers, and seven will undergo training in all facets of their job, he said. The other two already have been to school, and will be laid off for about a month while the training is in progress.

"We had to transfer all of our female inmates to Delaware County for four weeks while we have the training, so there won't be anything for our trained officers to do," Carroll said Friday. The inmates, who number "about eight," were taken to Delhi on Thursday.

By comparison, the jail housed 82 male inmates as of late Friday afternoon, according to a male corrections officer.

Carroll said state officials notified the Sheriff's Department months ago that the county's female corrections officers needed additional training. For years, the county has hired women part time for this position to take care of a relatively small number of women in jail.

"They had been hired as matrons, but there really is no such thing as a matron anymore," Carroll said. "Now everyone has to be a corrections officer."

County Rep. Greg Relic, R-Unadilla, chairman of the county's Public Safety and Legal Affairs Committee, said Thursday that the training will be good for the department.

"Our committee questioned whether we might be better off sending all of our female prisoners elsewhere, but it really is cheaper to train and keep our own staff," he said.

Relic said it might cost the county as much as $100,000 a year more to send female prisoners to another facility and lay off the female officers.

Carroll said other counties charge $75 to $80 a day to keep prisoners, and there are other expenses.

"The biggest expense is transporting them for court appearances and anywhere else they have to go," he said. "These days, that can add up fast."

The training will be conducted at the county's Public Safety Building in Phoenix Mills, and department employees will be the instructors, Carroll said.