Suffolk County’s jails are being forced to hold onto 125 felons who were supposed to be transferred upstate — with officials blaming state government chaos for the delay, The Post has learned.
County Executive Ed Romaine blamed Gov. Kathy Hochul and said housing a growing number of state prisoners is putting staff in a dangerous situation as taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of thousands in estimated extra costs.
“They’ve been convicted and are supposed to be in state prisons and they’re not because the state is just not taking them,” Romaine told The Post.
“Now, why is the state not taking them?” the Republican added. “Well, [Hochul] fired 2,000 corrections officers striking for better working conditions and she’s closing prisons around the state.”
Under state law, inmates sentenced to hard time in state prison are supposed to be transferred upstate within 10 business days. But Romaine said that has changed in the aftermath of labor unrest with the corrections officer union and Democratic governor.
He said the delays are now causing headaches across the system, from administration to the inmates themselves.
Most of the detainees in the two county jails — in Riverhead and Yaphank — are people accused of low-level crimes that are being held for trial and have not been convicted. They are now bunking alongside convicted criminals who were intended to only pass through the system.
Romaine added that the influx of roughly 125 felons is raising serious safety and management concerns for staff.
“Our jail staff are already spread thin,” Romaine wrote in a letter to Gov. Hochul in May obtained by The Post. “I understand that the state faces similar staffing challenges, but it is unfair to shift this burden to the County with minimal financial compensation and little to no collaboration.”
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision blamed the backlog on system-halting staffing shortages that were sparked after the state fired 2,000 corrections officers who participated in an unauthorized, nearly month-long strike in March.
Romaine shot back that the staffing shortages should be Suffolk’s problem.
“The law says they’re state ready, then they need to be in state prisons, not local jails,” he said.
New York State is reimbursing Suffolk $100 per day for every inmate stuck in the county jails, but Romaine said the county pays $250 per day for each, meaning taxpayers are on the hook for the extra $150.
“The warden and his staff calculate that we have expended approximately $280,000 in excess of what we have received from the state to house these state ready but unclaimed prisoners since February,” Romaine wrote in the May letter.
More inmates in lockup means more guards are needed to work — with more overtime costs, he added.
Romaine warned that if the backlog continues, it could lead to dangerous overcrowding and unravel the work the county has been doing to improve jail conditions.
“This is unsustainable long term,” he said.
