Nassau County Jail Gets Go-Ahead to House Suffolk Inmates

The in East Meadow has been given the nod to rent some of its empty jail cells to house Suffolk County prisoners after the state recently issued the facility a clean bill of health, officials said.

“They cleaned up everything and it started a couple of days ago,” one Nassau County jail official, who did not want to be identified, said of housing inmates from Suffolk County.

The jail official added that approximately 45 inmates from Suffolk have already been housed in the East Meadow jail and other prisoners are expected to arrive shortly.

“We’re getting more prisoners from there every day,” he said, adding that he was unaware whether they are transfers from Suffolk County’s two overcrowded jails or are newly arrested prisoners.

The Suffolk inmates were allowed into the Nassau County facility after the State Commission of Correction determined that jail officials had done enough to correct long-standing violations, mainly involving sanitary conditions at the jail.

Nassau County jail officials recently wrote to state correction officials imploring them to conduct a follow-up visit before the scheduled inspection dates in May to demonstrate how they have complied with regulations and have met proper staffing requirements. Nassau County reportedly was attempting to close a budget gap, in part, by renting the empty cells to its Long Island neighbor. The county would reportedly earn $4.6 million a year for every 100 cells it leases, since Suffolk is reportedly willing to pay $125 per inmate per day.

The state’s sudden about-face allowing Nassau to lease many of its empty cells came after state inspectors visited the facility earlier this month and agreed that many of the violations were addressed.

According to the state, the Nassau jail had failed to correct 14 of the 27 violations cited by the state during past inspections. These violations included the poor maintenance of the inmates’ shower areas and the failure to properly launder their prison-issued uniforms, said Thomas A. Beilein, chairman of the State Commission of Correction. Some of the sanitation violations spanned more than 27 months, Beilein said.

In a harshly worded letter to Acting Nassau County Sheriff Michael Sposato, Beilein said he was disappointed over the jail’s “deplorable” conditions, saying that unless the jail was cleaned up, it would be banned from leasing any of its 500 empty jail cells to Suffolk County.

But the commissioner was impressed during the most recent inspection, even though some of the violations remained. He reportedly reserved the right to rescind the leasing agreement.

The East Meadow facility, which is at 75 percent of capacity, holds 1,452 inmates. Both of Suffolk’s jails, in Yaphank and Riverhead, already exceed their capacities.