Dutchess County Studies Jail Overcrowding

POUGHKEEPSIE – The Dutchess County Legislature and Criminal Justice Council continue to study the overcrowding at the county jail in Poughkeepsie and identify possible solutions.

Legislature Chairman Robert Rolison said they need to develop programs with best practices and evidence based outcomes.

“So everything that is done for the right reasons that have been proven to be the right reasons with the right outcomes that are going to lower recidivism, that’s going to lower the cost to the county,” Rolison said. “We are going to be able to do a better job at running a correctional, and I like even to say a transitional facility that we can get people back into the public to kind of regain their community membership.”

Because of jail overcrowding, the county houses over 200 inmates daily in other county jails around the state at a cost of about $6 million annually.