JAMESVILLE – Although a final decision is likely several months away, County Executive Ryan McMahon and outgoing Sheriff Eugene Conway announced last week their intention to close the Jamesville Correctional Facility on Route 173 in Jamesville and move the inmates to the Justice Center Jail in downtown Syracuse.
As previously reported on Syracuse.com, a final decision on the fate of Jamesville Pen, as it is known locally, won’t be made by the Onondaga County Legislature until February at the earliest.
The population of the penitentiary is largely made up of inmates serving out their sentences while the Justice Center houses those awaiting trials and those awaiting transfer to federal, state or county facilities. The penitentiary can house up to 538 inmates and has a staff of approximately 167 when fully staffed. It was built in 1983.
There are multiple reasons to shutter the facility, chief among them being the decline in the inmate population and challenges with staffing.
As it has across the state, bail reform has significantly reduced the number of incarcerated people awaiting trial.
Before bail reform in counties outside of New York City, more than 80 percent of people held in jail pretrial were charged with misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies, according to a study from the Vera Institute for Justice. After bail reform was introduced in January 2020, the number of people held on bail for misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies fell 83.3 percent outside of New York City.
Bail reform has become a hotly contested political issue with Republicans largely backing the reversal of the 2020 reforms and Democrats standing by them. With both houses of the state legislature and the governorship in Democratic control, it is unlikely that state government will return to cash bail for misdemeanors and non-violent offenses in the near term.
As part of their rehabilitation, many inmates in the Jamesville Correctional Facility participate in work programs both at the penitentiary and in the community. Some of the tasks this labor force participates in include cleaning up trash in county parks and roadsides, preparing NBT stadium for the summer season and sandbagging flood-prone areas. The inmates even work with the Onondaga Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs to raise ring-necked pheasants that are released in the wild.
