By Greta Stuckey
syracuse.com
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – An appeals court upheld a previous judge’s decision that the Onondaga County sheriff can’t stop the county from closing Jamesville Correctional Facility.
A state Supreme Court Judge Joseph Lamendola had dismissed a lawsuit in 2024 filed by Sheriff Toby Shelley to stop the county from closing the prison in Jamesville.
On Friday, the Appellate Division for the Fourth Judicial Department court in Rochester upheld the judge’s decision.
The sheriff’s office told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard on Monday that the sheriff is reviewing the decision and will give a statement about it later this week.
Last April, Shelley said he would appeal Lamendola’s decision because the plan to close the prison risks public safety and hurts taxpayers.
Shelley argued in the lawsuit that the county stripped him of his powers over the prison by changing the language in a local law that would allow the county to effectively shut down the prison.
County officials have said they want to shut down the prison and move all of the incarcerated people to the downtown jail to save money and address staffing shortages.
The county did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday regarding the plans or timeline for the prison closure.
The referendum
The county legislature approved the prison’s closure on Feb. 7, 2023, through two separate votes.
The first vote was to defund positions at the Jamesville prison and create those same positions at the downtown jail.
The second vote was to remove all mentions of the word corrections from a local law in the county charter and administrative code pertaining to the sheriff’s office. This was the primary subject of Shelley’s lawsuit.
A representative for the county attorney’s office previously said that changing the language of the law does not strip Shelley of his powers.
They said Shelley could still create or disband any division in his office but would no longer be required to have a corrections division.
By removing the requirement for a corrections division and defunding the jobs at the Jamesville facility, the jail would effectively be closed.
The sentenced inmates and people awaiting trial in Jamesville would all be moved to the downtown jail.
The Jamesville prison can hold 538 inmates. It opened in June 1983 and cost $9.8 million. The Justice Center jail in Syracuse can hold 665 people and opened in 1995.
While the Justice Center is primarily a holding facility for people who have not been convicted, the Jamesville facility mostly serves convicted individuals sentenced to a year or less in prison.
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