TEN THINGS DUTCHESS COUNTY NEEDS TO DO BEFORE EVEN CONSIDERING A JAIL EXPANSION
From Poughkeepsie Journal, Jan. 20th: "Study of Dutchess Jail Expansion Has Friends, Foes"
"On a typical day, more than 140 inmates from Dutchess are housed elsewhere because the county jail on North Hamilton Street in the City of Poughkeepsie doesn't have room for them. The cost of transporting and housing these inmates: about $3 million a year. Virtually every weekday, Dutchess County correction officers are transporting inmates to jails in Warren, Washington, Rensselaer and Schoharie counties or bringing them back from those facilities."
However this doesn't necessitate jail expansion!
"Democrat Joel Tyner of Clinton voted against the resolution authorizing the jail expansion feasibility study. Tyner said he believes the county should look much closer at ways to prevent recidivism. 'There are programs in Newark, in Brooklyn and in Lancaster, Pa., that are addressing this,' he said. 'We are not looking at the best practices that have succeeded elsewhere . Until we do, it's insane to spend millions and millions of dollars.' "
10 things Dutchess County should do before even thinking about ANY kind of jail expansion:
1. Dutchess should have a Fraternity for Dads Behind Bars similar to what Newark's Mayor Cory Booker recently started there -- an organization for incarcerated fathers that has reduced the local recidivism rate from 65% to 3%. See: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2032144,00.html
2. Dutchess should implement a truly comprehensive system of re-entry for men and women leaving jail or prison, modeled after Brooklyn DA Charlie Hynes' ComAlert program there that has significantly cut their recidivism rate. See: http://www.petitiononline.com/comalert ; http://www.BrooklynDA.org .
3. Dutchess should implement a cost-saving Job Court program modeled after the model one from Lancaster County/PA'profiled by National Public Radio to cut recidivism. See: http://www.petitiononline.com/jobcourt
4. Dutchess should welcome Father Peter Young and his organization, who have cut recidivism in parts of NYS where they have operations from 67% to less than 10%, as proven by a recent study by the John Jay School of Criminal Justice re: need for much more and better re-entry programs See: http://www.PYHIT.com
5. Dutchess should finally and fully implement a cost-saving housing-first strategy for the chronically mentally ill homeless alcoholics and drug addicts who have been cycling in and out of our jail here in Dutchess... see Jan. '05 article in Mother Jones magazine by Douglas McGray-- "Life on the Inside"...as well NYTimes piece pointing out how a housing-first approach to homeless there has cut homeless population literally in half...housing-first is also working quite well in various parts of NYC, Chattanooga, San Francisco, and all over the U.S. See: http://www.PathwaystoHousing.org
6. Dutchess should fully embrace all the cost-saving, pro-active, preventive recommendations put forth by the national and statewide Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Coalition (Sheriff Butch Anderson and DA Bill Grady are charter members of this organization that calls for serious, pro-active, preventive, cost-saving investments in pre-K, afterschool activities, and community-based programs for low-risk to medium-risk youth prone to juvenile delinquency): See http://www.AECF.org http://www.FightCrime.org.
7. Dutchess should fully restore county funds for these 3 crucial programs:
-- Restore BOCES GED program in the Dutchess County Jail (endorsed by the Jail's leadership)
-- Restore Project Return (juvenile delinquency prevention) for 45 kids at Youth Bureau, which costs only $24/day to keep youth with families -- instead of $657/day for incarceration.
-- Restore Mediation Center of Dutchess County (juvenile delinquency prevention for troubled teens), whcih served youth in 245 different families last year in the communit y-- avoiding the equivalent $240,000/year each for incarceration.
8. Dutchess should fully restore county funds for these five programs:
-- Cornell/4-H,
-- Youth Mentoring/Job Training/Placement at Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce,
-- Dutchess County Arts Council,
-- Mill Street Loft, and
-- Literacy Connections
All of these local institutions perform an incredibly valuable service to the community, keeping youth on right track.
9. Dutchess should make sure that our county is on the cutting edge re: cost-saving criminal justice innovations-- i.e., "diverting low-end probation and parole violators to non-incarcerative settings" -- like the HOPE Project in Hawaii, the High Point project in North Carolina and an experiment in Multnomah County (Portland, Oregon). All these model programs view jail and prison sentences as a last option rather than a default, and swift responses to violations are considered more important than harsh ones. For reformers, it is a rare breath of fresh air." (as reported on July 5th in The Nation by Sasha Abramsky-- "Is This The End of the War on Crime?"...programs like this are strongly recommended by the Vera Institute's Michael Jacobson. See: http://www.thenation.com/article/end-war-crime?page=full ; http://www.Vera.org
10. Dutchess should implement all of the recommendations from the Justice Policy Institute. See: http://www.JusticePolicy.org .
Note: Mike Thompson, director of the New York-based Council of State Government's Justice Center (http://www.JusticeCenter.csg.org ) is interested in helping to organize a forum in Feb./Mar. re: common-sense, cost-saving alternatives to jail expansion.
"On a typical day, more than 140 inmates from Dutchess are housed elsewhere because the county jail on North Hamilton Street in the City of Poughkeepsie doesn't have room for them. The cost of transporting and housing these inmates: about $3 million a year. Virtually every weekday, Dutchess County correction officers are transporting inmates to jails in Warren, Washington, Rensselaer and Schoharie counties or bringing them back from those facilities."
However this doesn't necessitate jail expansion!
"Democrat Joel Tyner of Clinton voted against the resolution authorizing the jail expansion feasibility study. Tyner said he believes the county should look much closer at ways to prevent recidivism. 'There are programs in Newark, in Brooklyn and in Lancaster, Pa., that are addressing this,' he said. 'We are not looking at the best practices that have succeeded elsewhere . Until we do, it's insane to spend millions and millions of dollars.' "
10 things Dutchess County should do before even thinking about ANY kind of jail expansion:
1. Dutchess should have a Fraternity for Dads Behind Bars similar to what Newark's Mayor Cory Booker recently started there -- an organization for incarcerated fathers that has reduced the local recidivism rate from 65% to 3%. See: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2032144,00.html
2. Dutchess should implement a truly comprehensive system of re-entry for men and women leaving jail or prison, modeled after Brooklyn DA Charlie Hynes' ComAlert program there that has significantly cut their recidivism rate. See: http://www.petitiononline.com/comalert ; http://www.BrooklynDA.org .
3. Dutchess should implement a cost-saving Job Court program modeled after the model one from Lancaster County/PA'profiled by National Public Radio to cut recidivism. See: http://www.petitiononline.com/jobcourt
4. Dutchess should welcome Father Peter Young and his organization, who have cut recidivism in parts of NYS where they have operations from 67% to less than 10%, as proven by a recent study by the John Jay School of Criminal Justice re: need for much more and better re-entry programs See: http://www.PYHIT.com
5. Dutchess should finally and fully implement a cost-saving housing-first strategy for the chronically mentally ill homeless alcoholics and drug addicts who have been cycling in and out of our jail here in Dutchess... see Jan. '05 article in Mother Jones magazine by Douglas McGray-- "Life on the Inside"...as well NYTimes piece pointing out how a housing-first approach to homeless there has cut homeless population literally in half...housing-first is also working quite well in various parts of NYC, Chattanooga, San Francisco, and all over the U.S. See: http://www.PathwaystoHousing.org
6. Dutchess should fully embrace all the cost-saving, pro-active, preventive recommendations put forth by the national and statewide Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Coalition (Sheriff Butch Anderson and DA Bill Grady are charter members of this organization that calls for serious, pro-active, preventive, cost-saving investments in pre-K, afterschool activities, and community-based programs for low-risk to medium-risk youth prone to juvenile delinquency): See http://www.AECF.org http://www.FightCrime.org.
7. Dutchess should fully restore county funds for these 3 crucial programs:
-- Restore BOCES GED program in the Dutchess County Jail (endorsed by the Jail's leadership)
-- Restore Project Return (juvenile delinquency prevention) for 45 kids at Youth Bureau, which costs only $24/day to keep youth with families -- instead of $657/day for incarceration.
-- Restore Mediation Center of Dutchess County (juvenile delinquency prevention for troubled teens), whcih served youth in 245 different families last year in the communit y-- avoiding the equivalent $240,000/year each for incarceration.
8. Dutchess should fully restore county funds for these five programs:
-- Cornell/4-H,
-- Youth Mentoring/Job Training/Placement at Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce,
-- Dutchess County Arts Council,
-- Mill Street Loft, and
-- Literacy Connections
All of these local institutions perform an incredibly valuable service to the community, keeping youth on right track.
9. Dutchess should make sure that our county is on the cutting edge re: cost-saving criminal justice innovations-- i.e., "diverting low-end probation and parole violators to non-incarcerative settings" -- like the HOPE Project in Hawaii, the High Point project in North Carolina and an experiment in Multnomah County (Portland, Oregon). All these model programs view jail and prison sentences as a last option rather than a default, and swift responses to violations are considered more important than harsh ones. For reformers, it is a rare breath of fresh air." (as reported on July 5th in The Nation by Sasha Abramsky-- "Is This The End of the War on Crime?"...programs like this are strongly recommended by the Vera Institute's Michael Jacobson. See: http://www.thenation.com/article/end-war-crime?page=full ; http://www.Vera.org
10. Dutchess should implement all of the recommendations from the Justice Policy Institute. See: http://www.JusticePolicy.org .
Note: Mike Thompson, director of the New York-based Council of State Government's Justice Center (http://www.JusticeCenter.csg.org ) is interested in helping to organize a forum in Feb./Mar. re: common-sense, cost-saving alternatives to jail expansion.