New jail expected to be ready by August
The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office plans to begin moving inmates to the newly completed Justice and Transition Center facility as early as August, according to a report by the county comptroller.
As of March 31, $166 million had been spent or committed to the project, the largest in county history, with $26 million remaining, the comptroller said.
The first phase of the project, the Law Enforcement Center, was completed in 2019; the jail should be finished next month. Its design was recently altered to reduce the beds by 20, to 308. Inmates are expected to be moved into the jail between August and November, the comptroller said.
The Department of Public Works has asked the county to provide $725,000 of its federal pandemic relief funds to convert the current jail, built in 1995, into a homeless shelter. The Dutchess County Legislature is expected to consider the request this month. If approved, the shelter could be completed by May 2024.
Dutchess has spent $21.4 million of the $57.1 million it received in pandemic relief funds, according to the comptroller, including $1.84 million in the first quarter of 2023 on expenditures that included payroll and benefits ($621,000) and a behavioral health RV ($150,000).
