State Sen. Mark Walczyk, R-Watertown, is pictured speaking during a news conference before the end of this year’s legislative session.

A state lawmaker wants to triple the rate local jails are paid to house inmates who are waiting to be transferred to a state prison.

Sen. Mark Walczyk, R-Watertown, has introduced legislation (S.8848) that would increase the rate the state reimburses counties to house “state-ready” inmates from $100 a day to $300 a day or the actual cost of housing them, for the first 10 days local jails hold them. Then, the rate would increase to $600 a day.

Nothing will be done with Walczyk’s bill until January at the earliest – and it’s unlikely Democrats in the state Legislature will approve the bill. But, Walczyk’s bill shines a light on a growing issue within the state’s corrections system.

The issue of housing state-ready inmates was a key local concern prior to the state’s bail reforms when space in the Chautauqua County Jail was hard to come by. The issue reared its head again earlier this year when state corrections officers went on strike, an action that prevented the transfer of inmates from local jails to state facilities.

“This legislation will give much needed financial relief to counties holding these individuals, while at the same time incentivizing the state to quickly move these people to state correctional facilities,” Walczyk wrote in his legislative justification.

The state Division of Criminal Justice Services resumed transferring inmates from local jails to state facilities in May, but the transfer rate is not nearly as fast as it was before the corrections officer strikes. The number of what are known as “state readies” in local jails outside of New York City has skyrocketed over the last year. According to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, there were 217 such prisoners outside of New York City on May 2, 2024. That number remained relatively steady until March 2, 2025, when the number increased to 588. It then went up to 1,032 in April 2025 and 1,412 in May 2025. The number of state readies in the Cattaraugus County Jail has increased from one in May 2024 to eight in May 2025 while the number in the Chautauqua County Jail has increased from one in May 2024 to 17 in May 2025. The number by June, when Sheriff Jim Quattrone told The Post-Journal and OBSERVER that the number of state readies in the Chautauqua County Jail had climbed to 26. Quattrone’s comments came during a conversation about the future of the Chautauqua County Jail and the possibility of housing some local inmates in the Brocton Shock Incarceration Facility.

“I’d be hesitant, and the biggest reason right now is the state of crisis that the state prison system is dealing with right now,” he said. “Until New York state can figure out their own issues at the state level, I’m not comfortable about sending our inmates to a state facility.”

Republicans have been critical of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s firing of 2,000 corrections officers who didn’t return to work after this spring’s strikes. Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, has been among the Republicans who have pushed Hochul to rehire the corrections officers rather than pay National Guard soldiers to work in the prisons. Earlier this month, the New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) urged the state to take immediate action to transfer state-ready inmates from county jails to state prisons without delay.

“County jails are not long-term correctional institutions,” said Benjamin Boykin, NYSAC president. “The prolonged retention of state-ready inmates in county jails undermines this fundamental purpose. These individuals have been adjudicated and are designated to serve their sentences in state prisons, yet they remain in local facilities, burdening counties with costs they cannot and should not be asked to sustain. The financial strain of housing state-ready inmates, coupled with the operational challenges of holding these state prison-ready inmates, diverts critical resources from other essential public services.”