Articles

Renovations Improve Layout at Otsego County Jail

By Lisa Kopochinski

OTSEGO COUNTY, N.Y.—Renovations at the Otsego County Jail in Cooperstown, N.Y., are now complete after nine months. The $2.5 million project has improved the layout of the outdated building.

“We have brought the building back into an acceptable level,” said Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin.

The renovations include the addition of handicapped accessible areas, but that also lowered the number of beds by two. The jail has also set aside areas for inmates showing COVID-19 symptoms, and an area for those who become infected. One cannot enter the jail without being screened for symptoms, and the entire facility has been sanitized to the CDC and Department of Health standards. A. Treffeisen & Son was the contractor on this project.

Sheriff Devlin said that prior to these renovations, the building did not allow a plan for the future.

“I have a person that watches this whole section, and I have a person that watches that whole section, and at some point I [could] see the Commission saying you have to watch your inmates more closely because you’re doing rounds every 20 minutes or so. Maybe, we have to put another person down here. We saw an increase in crime prior to the coronavirus, but we’ve definitely seen a noticeable uptick in domestics, burglaries, larcenies, mental health calls, things of that nature.”