Jail official offers justification for holding inmates too long
A top official at the Erie County Holding Center agrees in an affidavit that the jail this summer held certain defendants in its bullpen longer than the state allows, but he says jailers were justified in each case.
In most of the cases, the inmates were intoxicated and aggressive and needed hours to calm down so they could be booked into the facility, Chief of Operations John A. Anthony says.
The State Commission of Correction, in a lawsuit to be heard today, cites seven examples of inmates who were awaiting arraignment and confined for too long in pens or isolation rooms without items of personal hygiene. The commission used the examples to bolster its contention that the Holding Center chronically violates its rules.
The examples were spotted during state inspections leading up to the lawsuit, which attempts to compel Sheriff Timothy B. Howard to operate the Holding Center in a “safe, stable and humane” manner in several areas, including granting inmates more access to visitors and offering a reliable grievance system following disciplinary actions.
The Holding Center’s critics say that its pens feature the jail’s ugliest conditions. Inmates from varied backgrounds, both violent or not, can linger for hours or even days as they wait to see a judge. They share one toilet, and for sleep they sprawl out on the floor. They are not allowed toothbrushes, soap and sometimes even toilet paper.
The Commission of Correction, which regulates local jails in New York, lets Erie County hold recently arrested defendants for up to four hours in pens with other inmates or up to 12 hours alone in isolation rooms. Then, if they still have not seen a judge, they must be assigned to a housing unit and given items of personal hygiene, access to showers and bedding.
In an affidavit prepared for today’s courtroom arguments, the chief of operations said five of those prearraigned defendants — who waited an average 16 hours before being assigned housing — arrived drunk or high and refused to cooperate. So, even though they were aggressive, they remained in a pen with other inmates until they were willing to be processed.
Another inmate, at risk of suicide, would have been placed in an area reserved for inmates under suicide watch, but with that area full, she and the seventh inmate were instead placed in their own isolation rooms where they could be watched constantly, Anthony said.
In her written arguments to defend Howard, County Attorney Cheryl A. Green says the sheriff should not have to give prearraigned inmates at his Holding Center bedding, inmate handbooks and items of personal hygiene.
Green argues that defendants in the “lockups” maintained by local police departments do not as a rule get handbooks, bedding, toothbrushes or grievance forms.
However, the Commission of Correction insists that defendants awaiting arraignment in the Erie County Holding Center eventually receive those items because the Holding Center is classified as a jail and must meet higher standards.
Erie County is willing to provide hygiene items to inmates once they have been arraigned and are returned to the jail. But Green says that giving the items to inmates who are freed upon seeing a judge for the first time wastes money and other resources.
The Holding Center since 2003 has served as the Buffalo Police Department’s lockup. In exchange for a fee from the city, the Holding Center each day accepts dozens of people recently arrested by Buffalo police and awaiting arraignment. The Holding Center also takes in defendants recently arrested by Erie County sheriff’s deputies.
“The interpretation asserted by the COC that requires unarraigned prisoners to be treated like arraigned prisoners defies logic,” Green wrote in a response to the commission’s lawsuit. “For example, it makes no sense to give an inmate handbook to any inmate that may be in our custody less than 24 hours, nor does it appear that the Correction Law or regulations require such a result.”
She goes on to argue that Erie County should be held to “lockup” standards when it comes to inmates awaiting arraignment. And she writes that the state lawsuit now lacks relevance because Erie County for the most part complies with the state’s rules. Similarly, she has said that a U. S. Justice Department lawsuit against Erie County over conditions at the Holding Center and Correctional Facility in Alden should be dismissed — because the federal agency has not proved its allegations.
Howard and County Executive Chris Collins are discussing the construction of a new multimillion-dollar lockup on West Eagle Street, largely so they can operate it under the more lenient standards of a lockup for defendants awaiting their initial court appearance.
State Supreme Court Justice Diane
Y. Devlin is to hear the arguments today by Green and by an assistant attorney general representing the Commission of Correction.
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