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Candidates Outline Reduction In Jail Costs

Joe Gerace and Jim Quattrone

Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-part series featuring a debate between Sheriff Joe Gerace and challenger Jim Quattrone. Monday’s topic will cover drunken driving deaths and opioid abuse.

The inmate population at the Chautauqua County Jail has decreased.

However, finding a way to reduce the operating costs at the Mayville facility isn’t as black and white.

Chautauqua County Sheriff Joe Gerace, a Democrat seeking re-election to a seventh term Nov. 6, and his Republican challenger, Jim Quattrone, shared thoughts and cost-saving ideas over the jail during a recent debate.

Gerace said as of late September, there were 262 inmates at the jail, located at 15 E. Chautauqua St. Of those housed, 38 were federal inmates.

“Our population has been down throughout the entire summer,” Gerace said. “You try to look at the scientific reason for that. … Our local population has been down.”

The sheriff noted the work done by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council that “brought all of the players of the criminal justice system together. The dialogue has been extremely positive about looking at bail and what is reasonable.”

The council, similar to ones across the country, meets on a regular basis to discuss the criminal justice system while looking for improvements. One area discussed by the council is an initiative by the Chautauqua County Public Defender’s Office to represent clients at arraignment, something Gerace said will eventually be mandated by the state. The sheriff said more nonviolent criminals are being released on recognizance, which frees up space at the jail.

“Those factors, no doubt about it, have had an impact on the jail population,” Gerace said. “Last year we were sending inmates out to other jails due to the lack of space.”

Quattrone, meanwhile, began his career in 1987 on the Navigation Patrol, and worked at the Chautauqua County Jail prior to attending the Sheriff’s Academy. In 1988, he was appointed to road patrol, and later assigned to the STOP DWI patrol. The Lakewood resident was later promoted to sergeant and then to lieutenant, the rank he held when he retired.

Operating the jail is an “under-appreciated necessity” for the Sheriff’s Office, Quattrone said, and the biggest part of the department’s budget. It’s the jail where he said savings can be realized.

One area of the jail that he noted in particular was treatment for inmates dealing with mental illness.

“We have to find ways to keep those with mental health issues out of the jail,” Quattrone said. “We need committed leadership and really have timely screenings and assessments of those coming in — not waiting until after there is a tragedy to have these assessments.”

Quattrone questioned what programs were working within the jail to reduce recidivism rates. He pointed to Ready, Set, Work that helps inmates to develop job leads, identify job matches and help refine skills. The program in Chautauqua County is funded by a grant.

“This will actually help defenders when they get out to find employment and prevent them from re-offending,” Quattrone said.

Gerace questioned Quattrone specifically on where he would make cuts to the jail if he were sheriff.

“My opponent talks about cost savings,” Gerace said. “I’d like to know what cost savings he’s talking about at the jail. We look at every dime in that jail — where it’s spent, how we can manage it with the staff that we are given funding for. I’d like some specifics.

“As a member of the agency for many years, if he had ideas … they should have been brought forth at the time he was employed.”

In response, Quattrone said he would like to take a look at the amount of forced overtime that some deputies are required to work, staffing levels as well as reviewing programs that could help keep recidivism rates low. He also said the county could hear suggestions on staffing from the New York State Commission of Correction and from those who work in the jail.

“They have proposed different ideas. They have ideas,” Quattrone said. “Let’s listen to them, let’s work with them and find different ways. … Things are working in the jail. Ultimately, if we can keep people out of the jail and effective places for individuals to go it might be an opportunity for us to reduce the size of the jail.

“But we really have to evaluate those programs and the overtime,” he continued. “It’s not only expensive but it’s dangerous to the corrections officers that are working extra hours when perhaps the fatigue has set in.”

Gerace said the Sheriff’s Office can’t simply cut overtime. He said in order to do so, additional staff would have to be hired, which would need approval by the County Legislature.

“It’s not easy to say we’re just going to make a cut,” he said. “If you cut overtime you still gotta fill those positions of every shift of every day.”

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