The Erie County Sheriff’s Office made overpayments totaling about $54,000 due to discrepancies in the invoicing process, a pair of audits from the Erie County Comptroller’s Office found.
More broadly, the audits found that the system for maintaining inmate bank accounts and commissary funds had “significant internal control weaknesses” from 2021 to 2023. Those weaknesses exposed funds to potential fraud or embezzlement, although the audits found no evidence that any money was stolen or misused.
The story was first reported in The Buffalo News.
In an official response to auditors, the sheriff’s office said the audit “reflects operations that occurred prior to the current administration’s tenure.”
“As expected, certain practices, policies and procedures from the previous administration extended into the early stages of the current term,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote.
The audits reviewed activity from Jan. 1, 2021 through Dec. 31, 2023. Current Sheriff John Garcia took office on Jan. 3, 2022. He succeeded Tim Howard, who served as sheriff from 2005 to 2022. Howard is now the town supervisor of Wales.
The sheriff's office said it had appointed a new chief of administration in 2024 and “has implemented a series of strategic improvements,” including by reassigning responsibilities to better segregate duties. The comptroller said they could not independently verify those claims because they were made after the audit period.
“Our dedication to continuous improvement remains unwavering,” the county sheriff's said in its statement. “We will carefully review and consider all findings and recommendations presented in this audit as part of our ongoing efforts to advance transparency, accountability and performance.”
The audits, among other findings, reported that the Erie County Sheriff’s Office:
- Made overpayments totaling about $54,000 due to discrepancies in the invoicing process.
- Paid more than $2,300 in late fees to Spectrum because of payment delays.
- Delayed depositing checks, sometimes in violation of Sheriff’s Office policy. One of those delays caused the county to lose $110.
- Failed to document receipt of goods or services in 128 cases.
- Made payments to Access Securepak related to the commissary based on an informal agreement, not an update to their contract.
- Tasked one individual — the assistant chief of administration — with performing multiple critical functions related to inmates’ personal accounts, and another individual with multiple critical functions related to the commissary account. The lack of segregated duties “contradicts fundamental internal control principles and county policy, increasing the risk that errors or irregularities could occur without detection.”
- Didn’t maintain a general ledger for inmate accounts that separately tracked checks and deposits.
- Made undocumented ledger adjustments totaling thousands of dollars.
- Didn’t make timely updates to the commissary budget.
The sheriff’s office maintains “escrow accounts” to manage money belonging to individuals incarcerated at the Erie County Holding Center (ECHC) and the Erie County Correctional Facility (ECCF). Incarcerated individuals can receive money from family or friends and inmate work programs. They can use those funds to purchase items from the commissary, pay medical bills and cover court fees. The remaining balance is given to individuals upon their release.