Public Safety Facility data backs positive performance

NORWICH – Recent data comparing New York’s county jails puts Chenango County’s new Public Safety Facility ahead of the pack when it comes to the percentage of sentenced inmates and numbers farmed in.

“Overall, for the short time we’ve been open, we are doing pretty good in comparison to other counties,” Sheriff Thomas J. Loughren said.

During October, 68 percent jailed in the Town of Norwich facility were fully-sentenced. Though the Sheriff’s Office would prefer the number to be higher (housing unsentenced criminals is “a drain on system,” Loughren said), Chenango County’s rate surpasses all of the other jails in the surrounding counties.

Only 23.8 percent of the inmates in Broome County’s jail, 30 percent in Otsego’s, 36.7 percent in Cortland’s and 38 percent in Delaware’s were actually sentenced criminals. The rest were awaiting trial. Madison County’s jail came close with 57.5 percent.

Chenango County’s percentage dropped to 66.7 percent in November and then 50.9 percent in December; however it still remains the highest in the surrounding counties by almost 20 percent. Loughren said judges historically put off court sentencing until after the Christmas holidays. He expected the number sentenced to go back up by the end of the month.

Though Loughren praised the hard work of Chenango County District Attorney Joseph A. McBride, he pointed out that farmed-in inmates are generally sentenced criminals and the county jail takes in a lot of them. “Usually they don’t send me unsentenced people, because they just have to come back and get them for trial,” he said.