The Sheriff's Office manages and maintains three Correctional Facilities, a Medium/Maximum Security Facility at Riverhead, a Minimum Security Facility at Yaphank and a DWI facility at Yaphank. The correctional system has expanded at an extraordinary rate: from 481 cells in 1980 to 1,268 in 1998. In recent years a dramatic increase in the prison population has occurred. The average daily inmate count is between 1500 and 1600. The problem of feeding, clothing, housing and caring for prisoners has therefore intensified in complexity. Because of space constraints, housing inmates has become increasingly problematic. In an effort to abide by State mandates concerning care, custody and control of inmates remanded to the Sheriff through our judicial system, the Sheriff's Office continually focuses on special housing needs and particular classifications of inmates. Thus assuring that all inmates are processed into and within the correctional system in a consistent and humane manner.

 

The Facilities provide custody of males and females, 16 years of age and older. Inmates are assigned to the facilities under several conditions. If after arraignment they are unable to post bail, were remanded without bail, are awaiting adjudication of criminal charges during trial, parole violators awaiting parole revocation hearings, persons charged with civil and family court crimes or after sentencing. Pre-sentenced detainees constitute about two-thirds of the total inmate population.

 

Upon arrival to the facility and periodically during their stay, Classification Officers at the Maximum Security Facility in Riverhead oversee all inmate location assignments. Inmates deemed less violent, whether sentenced or pretrial detainees are usually transferred to the Minimum Security Facility at Yaphank. Sentenced inmates can spend as much as 365 days in custody within the County Facilities. Inmates with sentences exceeding one year are transferred to the custody of the State Department of Correctional Services.

 

Sentenced inmates can work in the facilities. Duties include kitchen, cleaning, garage and painting. Kitchen workers wear white uniforms; garage and "outside clearance" (trustee) workers wear orange. All other inmates wear green. No inmates are permitted to wear civilian clothes.

 

Unlike the Maximum Security Facility at Riverhead, the average stay of a sentenced inmate at the Yaphank facility is 88 days. With "good time," an average stay can be reduced to 45 days. Inmates in Yaphank are housed dormitory style, utilizing bunk beds, in a variety of housing units.

 

The D.W.I. Alternative Facility is designed to reduce overcrowding and recidivism among D.W.I./Substance abuse offenders. In existence since February 1987, inmate eligibility recommendations are made to the Judge as part of the pre-sentence investigation. This allows for an immediate reduction in the traditional sentence that would normally be imposed by the Court. The confinement phase is followed by a three to five year aftercare phase, under the supervision of the Suffolk County Probation Department. The facility is staffed with two Psychiatric Social Workers and one Certified Alcohol Counselor; two Probation Officers, who are also alcohol counselors; one Project Coordinator; a civilian clerical worker and twelve Correction Officers who are trained to work with substance abusing offenders. Education and treatment services are enhanced with the assistance of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors who work with the treatment team. Suffolk County, through the Sheriff's operating budget, and the N.Y.S. Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives, jointly fund this project as part of the County's Alternative to Incarceration Services Plan. D.W.I. fine monies levied against convicted drunk drivers and the Alternative to Incarceration grant offset some correctional expenses.