Ulster County News

FROM: ULSTER COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE

DATE: March 21, 2002 

The Ulster County Law Enforcement Center Oversight Committee reviewed final design plans this week for the new $62 million dollar facility with Architect Joseph Roblee and Construction Manager Richard Scaife from the firm of Bovis International. Groundbreaking for the new jail will take place late this summer with construction to be completed by August 2004.

The new Ulster County Law Enforcement Center is designed to look like an office building from the front, concealing three ‘podular’ housing units. The facility will also be shielded by natural tree buffers to the front, rear and side. The ‘pods’ will allow for ‘direct supervision’ of inmates by a smaller number of correction officers, replacing the inefficient tier-style system on Golden Hill, which requires a correction officer-to-inmate ratio of 1 – 2.

The Law Enforcement Center will be built to house 404 inmates, but the site can be expanded to house up to 720 inmates if and when that becomes necessary.

Prior to releasing the new plan, Architect Roblee told the committee that his firm looked at the possibility of building a 100-inmate addition to the current jail. He estimated the cost at $30-40 million dollars. However, he noted that the NYS Corrections Commission would then cancel the variances on 96 beds and housing variances resulting in a net increase of just four (4) cells. Ulster County has been granted temporary variances by NYS for several years while working on a permanent solution to its jail overcrowding. The current jail was built to house 154 inmates. The population has frequently swelled to almost twice that amount causing the County to spend millions of dollars to board-out inmates to other county jails.

Engineer Dennis Larios, of Brinnier and Larios, explained that his firm conducted site development cost comparisons between Golden Hill and the new site on Albert Street. Those comparisons indicated that it would be at least $1.5 million dollars less expensive to develop the site on Albert Street.

Ulster County Buildings and Grounds Commissioner Harvey Sleight detailed maintenance costs at the current jail. He noted that it is an all-electric facility and is extremely expensive to maintain. Commissioner Sleight indicated that the plumbing, heating and electric systems all need to be replaced.