Sheriff Garcia balks at $700 million price tag for new county jail

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) – Earlier this month, the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning released a preliminary draft of a comprehensive facility and operational needs assessment for the two facilities operated by the Erie County Sheriff’s Office: The Erie County Holding Center in Downtown Buffalo and the Erie County Correction Facility in Alden.

This consultation provided the Sheriff’s Office and other county officials a number of options when it came to the possibility of building a new, or significantly renovated consolidated facility, replacing the other two facilities. The proposed new county jail would ideally be in Downtown Buffalo.

However, the cost for such an endeavor, regardless of the options outlined in the assessment, ended up being upwards of $700 million or more. That’s a price tag Erie County Sheriff John Garcia knows is too much to bear for the taxpayers of the county.

“When I came in office, I think it was pretty evident to all of us that we needed a new facility. It was never put on the table before, we moved it along with a study, thanks to the county executive and the legislators. This was a bipartisan, common sense, no-brainer study, and now they came back with a great plan, the study, except the cost. The cost is $700 million,” said Garcia in an interview with WBEN.

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