It shouldn’t take weeks or months to get a state parole violator to be moved to a state correctional facility, but it does.

That means $76 a day of local tax dollars and local jail space are being used to house, feed and care for each jail inmate awaiting a parole hearing who rightfully should be the state’s responsibility.

In the 1990s, the New York State Executive law was amended to require that counties, rather than the state, provide housing for state parole violators who are arrested in a specific county. At that time, state correctional facilities were overcrowded, so the state needed local jails to help. Changes to sentencing guidelines have lessened the state’s prison population over the years to the point some state facilities have been downsized. Counties, living within the state’s 2 percent tax cap and facing limited appetites from local taxpayers to expand their jails, are dealing with overcrowding and strained budgets. It doesn’t help that the costs to house alleged parole violators has skyrocketed. While the typical inmate costs $76 a day to house, those with medical conditions and a list of prescription medications also come from the county jail budget. Those costs total several hundred thousand dollars each year in the Chautauqua County Jail, and removing state parole violators from the mix would surely help the local money last longer.

State Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean, heard Gerace’s plea for relief, shepherding legislation through the state Senate that would limit such local detentions of state parole violators to three days. The legislation has been sent to the state Assembly and referred to its Corrections Committee. It would have been nice if the legislation had been covered during the alleged extraordinary special session of the legislature, but we understand. It was more important to name a bridge after the governor’s father than it was to help local taxpayers. The problem is this isn’t the first time the Assembly has failed to act on this legislation. The state Senate has approved this legislation during the 2013-14, 2015-16 and 2016-17 sessions. Maybe the third time will be a charm for the state Assembly,