Newly-created rules by the state legislature regarding how local jails are managed has Rockland’s sheriff questioning yet again why political leaders don’t consult him and his coleagues before they make such changes. Rockland sheriff Lou Falco was at a jail administrators conference yesterday in Saratoga, and said, for example, the state now requires them to give inmates extended time out of their cells, regardless of their behavior…
At around the same time, just a 45-minute drive south, New York Governor Kathy Hochul was speaking at the 2022 Division of Criminal Justice Services Symposium in Albany. Governor Hochul said $30 million in state funds would be used to purchase new technologies and body-worn cameras for local law enforcement agencies, and another $20 million for pretrial services in all New York counties outside of the city, which she said would help return more individuals to court by providing them with services and supervision…
Sheriff Falco says the state’s woes with mental health started well before the pandemic, back when the state closed many facilities across New York last decade, including here in Rockland. As a result, jails have become the only place they can get mental health services.