By Nick Buglione
The committee cited safety, traffic and financial concerns in rebuffing the pilot program, which was proposed by Sheriff Edward Reilly and backed by County Executive Thomas Suozzi.
Under the program, visiting hours will shift for a six-month trial period from Monday to Friday, noon to 8 p.m. slots, to a Tuesday to Saturday schedule. From Tuesday to Friday, visiting hours will remain as they are, while on Saturday they will run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The plan was conceived after Suozzi requested that Reilly look into starting weekend visitations at the jail. The move came in response to long-standing requests from advocacy groups and family members of inmates.
"There's been a push for this for some time," said Tony Cancellieri, deputy county executive for public safety and labor affairs. "There were requests upon the county, even under the previous administration, to have full visitation on Saturday and Sunday, which is the case in most correctional facilities."
Allowing weekend visitation is viewed as a way of making the jail's environment more humane, which was the recommendation of a federal investigative report last year following an incident in which two guards stomped an inmate to death.
On April 19, 2001, Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon wrote a letter to then-County Executive Thomas Gulotta, urging that visiting days at the jail be expanded to include weekends and holidays.
In the letter, Dillon noted that the United People for Social, Economic and Racial Justice, a Long Island coalition of about 40 religious and secular groups, was pushing for the change.
"Their request seems very reasonable to me, and I support them in their efforts to achieve it," Dillon wrote. "While it is necessary at times to incarcerate convicted offenders and those not convicted but awaiting trial, we should not unnecessarily add to the emotional burdens of inmates and their families."
Though advisory committee members said they sympathize with the families of inmates, they maintain the weekend program was drafted and introduced without their input or criticism.
"Personally, I'm appalled at the way this was handled," said Richard Bivone, a member of the advisory committee and the East Meadow Chamber of Commerce. "The credibility of this government in my mind is out the window. You don't make a decision like this without disclosing what you plan to do and what impact it's going to have on the
community."
Nassau County Legis. Norma Gonsalves (R-East Meadow), a former jail committee member who has followed this issue closely, said Suozzi declined to meet personally with the committee, which comprises 12 community members who meet monthly with Reilly and a liaison from the county executive's office.
"I met with the county executive a week ago and asked if he would extend the same courtesy to the community leaders and meet with them to discuss the various points of concern they have," said Gonsalves. "I got a flat-out no. He said he'll meet with them sometime later, later meaning after the program would be implemented."
The jail committee first learned of the pilot program from Cancellieri in late February, after their monthly meeting. Members said they were assured that implementation of the plan was not "imminent" and were shocked when subsequent letters were issued informing them of the program's April 1 start date.
The committee was also angry that no apparent feasibility study was conducted to examine its potential impact on traffic, safety and cost.
"They're doing this backwards," said Richard Cardozo, president of the Carman Community Association and member of the advisory committee. "They should have evaluated first, then put the program in."
Cancellieri, however, said the sheriff closely examined these issues before recommending the program.
"This is not something that was decided on a Friday and put into place on a Saturday," he said. "This is also why the county executive wants this to be a pilot program. We encourage all groups to contact us during the program and communicate any issues they may have."
He also noted Suozzi does plan to meet with the advisory committee personally during the plan's trial period.
Since cutbacks have already removed a police patrol car that monitored the area outside the jail during visitor hours, as well as two correction officer interior perimeter patrols, safety is also among the primary concerns of the advisory committee.
"How can you put a pilot program into effect, take away three methods of security and increase the amount of people that will come in?" said Bivone.
With Monday hours eliminated, and Saturday hours replacing them, committee members believe that upward of 1,500 visitors will be drawn to the Carman Avenue jail on the weekend.
Traffic and parking are also among the top issues, said East Meadow Councilman Gary Hudes (R-Levittown). "Nobody has taken into account what the bus schedule will be on Saturday. You have people that on a day-to-day basis use public transportation to and from the facility," Hudes said, adding that more people will likely have to drive there on the weekend.
"Those parking fields are already packed during the week. What is going to happen on the weekend when you possibly bring in two to three times the amount of people? Where are those cars going to go?"
Bivone said that Nassau County taxpayers could expect to bear any costs incurred by the visiting-hour changes. "The cost to move an officer from one shift to another and what it's going to cost to supervise the amount of visitors will without a doubt create an overtime issue," he said.
According to Cancellieri, the potential cost of opening visiting hours on the weekend was taken under close consideration. "It wouldn't cost more money," he said, adding that expense is the main reason Reilly recommended only offering Saturday hours as opposed to the whole weekend.
Not all local civic activists are up in arms over the pilot program. Lorrence Green, president of the Salisbury Civic Association, said his group is cautiously willing to give the plan a chance. "We're taking the wait-and-see approach," he said.
Meanwhile, the Nassau County Jail Advisory Committee, along with local elected officials, are exploring possible legal action in the face of the program's impending start.
Located in a residential area, the Nassau County Jail has at times roiled the East Meadow community since its opening in 1957 and later expansion to an 832-inmate facility.
The advisory committee formed in the early 1990s to give community members a platform to air grievances with county authorities and officials. The committee said that when the facility expanded to hold 832 inmates, up from its previous 250 to 300, certain concessions were made to the community by the previous county executive to compensate for the change.
Among those concessions was a verbal guarantee from Gulotta that visiting hours would not be permitted on weekends, according to the committee.
Once the pilot program winds down in September, Cancellieri said the county executive will reach out to the East Meadow community for feedback. All sides will be considered when it is time to determine whether the program will remain.
