"Shrinking Jails, Rising Costs: Erie County's Wasteful Jail Budget," analyzes the dramatic decline in the county jail population and compares county spending on jails with spending on mental and public health.

The brief finds:

The Erie County jail population is shrinking rapidly.

• A decrease of 59% in the Holding Center population since September 2019.
• A decrease of 29% in the Correctional Facility population since September 2019.
• An 83% drop in the number of sentenced inmates. There are now only 36 inmates total (7%) serving a local sentence at either jail.
• Over 80% of incarcerated people in the jails are unsentenced (awaiting arraignment, trial, or sentencing).
• Combined, the jails are at 34% capacity, with 490 people held out of a 1,432-person capacity.

Jail spending does not reflect this change, and fails to capture the savings of a smaller population.

• The 2021 proposed County Budget maintains full staffing for both jail facilities, with around 700 staff supervising around 500 incarcerated people, even though the jails are at one-third of their capacity.
• Though the Sheriff's Department has moved most inmates to the Alden facility, the 2021 budget still funds over 400 positions at the Holding Center, to supervise around 150 incarcerated people.
• The 2021 proposed County Budget allocates $98 million to operate both jail facilities, which is almost double the allocation to Mental Health. This continues a trend; in 2019, for every $1 spend on mental health services, Erie County spent $2 on jails.
• If the 2021 budget is approved, the cost to county taxpayers will be $28,739 per intake or $160,131 per inmate per year to operate both jails.

The policy brief recommends steps that the County Legislature, County Executive, and County Sheriff can take to right-size the budget and reinvest in community health and community-based harm reduction services.