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New sheriff wants to expand drug treatment programs at county lockups

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia in uniform, with an American flag next to him and the Sheriff's Office logo behind him.
Erie County Sheriff's Office
New Erie County Sheriff John Garcia.

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said population in the county's lockups may be way down, but that doesn't mean major cuts in the staffs of the Holding Center in downtown Buffalo and the Correctional Facility in Alden.

Garcia said criminal justice changes like bail reform are cutting down on people awaiting trial in the Holding Center, but COVID problems in state prisons mean more people downtown waiting for virus screening before they go to state places like Elmira.

The new sheriff said he wants to cut down on mandatory, expensive overtime for guards with its constant double shifts — which is hard on his staff — by adding people.

Garcia is also adding more people for programs and drug treatment.

"The medication is one part of it. It's like rowing with one oar. You need the mental health component and the medical component. So we are allowed to hire two mental health professionals, a nurse-practitioner and an LPN, with an administrator," the sheriff said.

He said the idea is to change residents, to make them better and more adaptable people when they walk out the door.

"We want to expand our programs. We have great programs in place and I really want to highlight those," Garcia said, "and for the average person that thinks of a correctional facility as being some antiquated place of punishment, we have extraordinary programs in place and we want to expand those."

Garcia said some of this comes from the State Commission of Corrections, which was in town for two days this week for inspections and conversations.

"We just went over some new programs that need to be put in place, such as the HALT Act, which needs to be implemented by March 31," he said. "That is what used to be called solitary confinement."

Former Sheriff Tim Howard had serious problems with the commission during his time in the post, including the deaths of numerous inmates and questions about death causes.

Garcia said commission staffing rules limit how much the ranks of jail deputies can be cut, even with the massive falloff in residents.

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.