ALBANY - County property taxpayers in Western and Central New York will save money as a result of two new Department of Correctional Services intake centers that will lower the cost for counties to transport convicted felons to State prison.

DOCS plans to open one intake center at Albion Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in Orleans County, and another at Auburn Correctional Facility, a men’s prison in Cayuga County, on July 1, 2008.

When county jail inmates are sentenced to serve a prison term in a New York State correctional facility, the county Sheriff is required to transport them to one of a few designated prisons for processing by state correctional officials. Last year, county Sheriffs and the New York City Department of Corrections transported to such designated State prisons 27,702 offenders who either were convicted of a new crime or violated the conditions of their parole.

Sheriffs across the state must now transport female county jail inmates to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, the only DOCS “reception/classification” center for women. Albion is much closer to counties in Western and Central New York. The New York State Sheriffs Association anticipates considerable savings to those counties through reduced transportation and manpower costs, while DOCS anticipates only nominal additional costs.

DOCS Commissioner Brian Fischer decided to open Albion and Auburn as intake centers after a recent Sheriffs’ Association-sponsored training conference at which a number of Sheriffs told him they must make lengthy trips to deliver inmates into State custody.