The nine-day-old informational picket by state corrections officers has prompted the Department of Correctional and Community Supervision to ask the Erie County Sheriff’s Department to not transfer any of its inmates into New York-operated correctional facilities.
The request to pause the inmate transfer procedures comes against the backdrop of informational pickets being held at 33 state-run correctional facilities including Collins and Wende in Erie County.
Last year, about nine percent of the inmates either in the Erie County Holding Center or County Correctional Facility on Walden Avenue in Alden were ultimately transferred to a state jail, said Chris Horvatis, Erie County Sheriff’s Department spokesman.
The exact number of county inmates due for a transfer to a state correctional facility was not immediately available, Horvatis said.
Between the downtown holding center and Alden facility, the sheriff’s department has 713 inmates under its watch. That’s down slightly. From the 750 to 800 inmate average.
As for the frayed relations between the DOCCS and the New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association members, high level negotiations remain underway with key sticking points include revising or outright eliminating the HALT Act that governs solitary confinement regulations to mental health issues and staffing concerns.
