Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said the jail currently has about 185 to 190 inmates. P-J file photo

Since New York state reformed its bail system three years ago, fewer are staying in the Chautauqua County Jail. But that doesn’t mean its resulted in savings to county taxpayers.

In 2019, the state Legislature passed bail reform measures that eliminated cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felony charges. It also requires judges to consider a person’s ability to pay in cases where bail is set.

Critics have complained that bail reform doesn’t give local judges enough control and has permitted too many repeat and sometimes violent offenders to be released back on the streets.

Sheriff James Quattrone acknowledged that the jail population has dropped since that reform was put in place. Prior to bail reform, the jail was averaging 260 to 265 people a day. Now the jail has about 185 to 190 people.

Many of those people today aren’t staying in the jail once they do arrive.

“We are seeing some of the repeat people coming in being arraigned several times a month through our centralized arraignment program,” Quattrone said. “But they’re only the jail long enough to see the judge, who comes to the jail now, and then they’re released.”

He said fewer people in the jail hasn’t helped the Sheriff’s Office budget because deputies are being sent out more often arresting the same person multiple times or tracking people down on warrants because they skip their court appearances.

“Sometimes the people we’re re-arraigning have already been here and we have a bench warrant because they’re not showing up,” he said.

And for the jail budget itself, there hasn’t been much savings either. “We might have less people in the jail but it’s not like we’re able to close a section of the jail down because there’s classifications,” he said. “We can’t put certain inmates together. Per capita we end up spending more money because we have to keep the same amount of staff, the same facility to manage fewer people.”

When Quattrone talks to other law enforcement officers statewide, what’s happening in Chautauqua County is pretty typical of what happens elsewhere. “Meeting with other sheriffs around the state, they have the same issues and the same complaints, having to rearrest people,” he said.

Quattrone said he agreed that before 2019, some sort of bail reform was needed, but he believes the actions taken by the state Legislature went too far. “It seemed to go to the extreme where we’re not allowing judges to take into account the dangerousness and the safety of the public when we’re not setting bail,” he said.

Last month, state Sen. George Borrello held a press conference with Assemblyman Andy Goodell and law enforcement from across Borrello’s district, expressing concerns about the impact of the 2019 bail reform. Quattrone was not in attendance, but said he agrees with the issues raised that day. He also isn’t convinced New York is ready to make some changes.

“I know our local representatives — our state senator, our state assemblyman — are working hard to get a reform done but we’re meeting resistance in Albany,” Quattrone said.