Allegany County Sheriff releases 2016 annual report - Jail is covering costs

2016 ANNUAL REPORT SUMMARY
ALLEGANY COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Sheriff Rick Whitney

During the past year, 819 inmates were booked into the jail. The highest single day population was 144 with an average daily population of 121. The average daily population of Federal Detainees was 65. A total of 24 inmates were sentenced and transported to state prison. The office generated 2.15 million dollars in revenue from housing inmates. This revenue covered the bond payment (1.6 million) for the Jail and Public Safety Facility and provided an additional $550,000.00 in revenue for the county’s general fund. The sheriff’s office also came in under budget for the sixth straight year.

The jail division had several notable accomplishments in 2016. In June, Jail Administrator Christopher Ivers received national certification from the American Jail Association as a Certified Jail Manager. On November 29 – December 1, the jail went through an inspection by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility Office of Detention Oversight. The team was extremely complimentary of the level of professionalism exhibited by staff and administration, cleanliness of the facility, and the overall day-to-day operation of our facility.
Our excellent Medical Staff, who are able to resolve most medical problems within the confines of our facility, performed 554 history and physicals and 2,669 urgent and non-urgent sick or injury calls.
 Inmates in the working inmate program worked a total of 26,360 hours, the equivalent of over 12 full time employees. The inmate garden raised over 16,000 pounds of produce which was used to reduce the cost of meals at the jail. The pheasant program, which is run at no expense to the taxpayers, raised and released 1,533 birds. These activities help the inmates learn responsibility and give them a sense of pride gained by a job well done, hopefully reducing the probability of them re-offending and returning to our facility.
Although the primary responsibility of the Sheriff’s Office is the operation of the Allegany County Jail, we are also charged with the security at the county office building and court complex, law enforcement activities on both of the lakes located within the county, the civil process and the operation of the county’s E-911 dispatch center.
During 2016 Public Safety Dispatchers in the Sheriff’s Office E911 Division processed over 91,250 calls for service, which resulted in over 53,000 incident reports generated and classified as follows, 66% Police, 23% Medical, 10% Fire and 1% “other”. The upgrades to our 911 radio system are ongoing and in 2016 we were able to construct four new radio communication towers with the remaining three to be completed in 2017. These towers will greatly improve our emergency radio communications and will also be crucial to the implementation of the new county broadband system.
As directed by statute, this office monitored as many as 113 registered sex offenders in 2016, including 28 level III offenders which are classified as the highest risk to the community and most likely to re-offend.
The Sheriff’s Office is also involved in the community. In 2016, in partnership with PPAC, the Sheriff’s Office sponsored a total of four pill-drops throughout Allegany County collecting and destroying over $300,000.00 in estimated street value of drugs, keeping them off our streets and out of our water supply. Partnering with the county Office for the Aging and the NY State Police we continue to sponsor the TRIAD program that brings members of our senior citizen groups together monthly to listen to speakers on topics that affect their lives. Our officers also raised over $1,100.00 for the annual Shop with a Cop program with our “Beards for Bucks” campaign.
Our office continued to move forward in 2016 and I am confident that the men and women of the Allegany County Sheriff’s Office will again meet the challenges of the upcoming year in a professional and fiscally responsible manner.
Respectfully submitted,
Sheriff Ricky L. Whitney
Allegany County Sheriff