Chenango jail starts farming in prisoners

NORWICH – Despite recent predictions that Chenango County wouldn’t be able to farm in prisoners at the new Public Safety Facility until early fall, 33 of them have already arrived.

Chenango County Sheriff Thomas J. Loughren told members of the Finance Committee late last week that corrections officials “are making it work.” The inmates hail from Suffolk, Sullivan and Thompkins counties. He said each represents an income of $85 per day to the corrections department.

When county leaders created a 2006 budget for corrections last fall, they budgeted a total income of $100,00 to be made from housing out-of-county prisoners. The new 129-bed facility opened in February.