NCJ Number
86392
Date Published
1981
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Population growth in New York's jail facilities continues to pose problems of overcrowding, since most of the State's facilities are over 25 years old and inadequate in both capacity and quality to meet current standards for correctional institutions.
Abstract
The average daily population of local correctional facilities, reported as 4,638 in 1978 climbed to 5,403 in April 1980 and to 5,846 by November 1980. The statewide population density in all local correctional facilities increased from 77 percent of capacity in April to 85 percent of capacity in November 1980 and even more at certain individual facilities. Furthermore, the growing use of local jail sentences, especially lengthy jail sentences, contributes to the serious overcrowded conditions in local facilities. An inmate disturbance occurring in Nassau County in October, which resulted in injuries to inmates and officers, was traced to overcrowding problems. Strategies recommended for curtailing overcrowding include enlarging the capacity of local correctional facilities through renovation, new construction, and acquisition; decriminalizing by legislatively removing from the penal law certain behaviors now considered criminal; and eliminating by legislation the preadjudicatory detention and the postadjudicatory sanction of incarceration for certain misdemeanor offenses. Other alternatives are for amending the regulations governing the housing and classification of offenders and expanding the use of alternatives to preadjudicatory detention and to traditional postconviction in jails. Footnotes are provided.