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Overcast Locals tabbed for jail oversight committee
Of Mangano’s seven appointees, three live in E.M.
Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano has appointed seven people to a committee that will oversee the Nassau County Correctional Center. Of the seven, three are East Meadow residents.
The appointees to the Nassau County Correctional Board of Visitors — who must be approved by the County Legislature — include Helen Meittinis, Richard Bivone and Leon Campo, all of East Meadow. Campo is the former superintendent of the East Meadow School District, in which the jail is located.
The other appointees are Alphonzo Albright, a former deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation; Michael Ferrandino, a former FBI agent; Michael Califano, a former budget examiner for the Correctional Center; and the Rev. Dr. Phillip Elliot, the deputy county executive for health and human services.
Mangano was forced to make the appointments within 90 days after State Supreme Court Justice James McCormack ruled in March that according to the Nassau County charter, the jail oversight committee must have seven members. The ruling came as a result of a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union to force the committee to be filled in accordance with the charter.
In 1990, the county Board of Supervisors passed legislation that created the Board of Visitors and gave it the authority to oversee and investigate the NCCC. But no county executive, including former executives Thomas Gulotta and Tom Suozzi as well as Mangano, has ever appointed seven members to the board, and it has never met.
The county charter further states that committee members must be county residents, and must “possess a working knowledge of the correctional system.” “These candidates are all more than qualified to fulfill the duties as members of the Board of Visitors,” said Brian Nevin, a spokesman for Mangano.
The committee will have unfettered access to the Correctional Center’s records and can request temporary office space within the jail. Committee members, who will not be compensated for their work, can also advise the county sheriff in developing programs for improving services at the facility.
