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Faced with increasing pressure from New York's corrections commission, officials in Genesee County are exploring the requirements and necessity of building a new jail.

Among the first steps -- meet with a consultant who has studied the local criminal justice system and the current jail and hear what he learned and what he has to recommend.

Saturday morning, members of the Legislature, senior county offiicals, and Sheriff's Office staff met to hear what that consultant, Rod Miller, president of CRS Incorporated, had to say.

The bottom line: Genesee County needs a new jail. It may need to be built to meet a projected jail population of 184 by 2042. Such a jail could cost more than $52 million.

The design of the jail must also deal with reality -- the reality of state regulations and the needs of a jail population that is ever in flux.

Miller is recommending a jail design that can accommodate a growing inmate population, but one flexible enough to accommodate an average daily population that is ever changing based on age, mental stability, special needs, and gender -- these days that means not just male and female groups. The new jail also needs to accommodate transgender individuals.

Getting the public to accept a new jail, Miller acknowledges, will be difficult, but he doesn't think the state is going to give Genesee County much leeway.

The commission, he said, takes very seriously its goal to ensure a safe and operationally efficient jail system. 

New York has standards, he said. Half the states don't have standards for local jails and among those that do, New York is one of the few with strict and well-defined standards. 

"To me, that's a good thing," Miller said. "You've got somebody backing you on what you need to do."

To the advantage of local officials, Miller said, the county already has the system in place to support a modern jail.

"You have a very proactive criminal justice and social services system that works well together," Miller said. "It's really very impressive."

The biggest expense of a new jail over 30 years isn't the construction, Miller said. It's staffing. That will take up 60 percent of the county's expense over the first 30 years of a new jail's lifespan.

"New York is very intensive on staffing requirements," Miller said.

The current, aging jail, however, hasn't evolved, Miller said, to meet the demands modern society puts on it, or how the local criminal justice system to keep short-term stays at the jail to a minimum.  

The county's criminal justice system does a good job of diverting people from jail, toward release under supervision, or treatment for mental health problems or substance abuse. Therefore, generally, the people who are in the jail stay longer than three days -- more than half of all incarcerations -- and these are people who need to be there, Miller said.

But when it was designed in the 1980s, the architects didn't anticipate a facility that would mostly house people staying there for months at a time.  That's common with older jails, Miller said. 

"A lot of inmates will tell you," Miller said, "that if you're going to do a long time, jail time is the worse time."

Looking at jail population trends, the number of local average daily incarcerations is going to grow from less than 100 now to more than 180 by 2042, Miller said.

The growing inmate population locally isn't driven by more cops on the beat -- there aren't -- nor an increase in the crime rate -- it's gone down -- or any other identifiable socio-economic trend Miller said, except that more and more women are getting into serious legal trouble.

Most of Miller's projection anticipates a sizable increase in female inmate population in the coming decades. Whether that trend will continue, Miller acknowledged, just isn't something he or anybody else can predict. He said all he and the commission can do is look at the trends to come up with projections. He said intuitively, they know that much growth isn't likely, but if they back off that projection, how do they arrive at a realistic lower number? The data isn't available to support any other projection.

One thing that is known: jails need to deal more often these days with transgender individuals.

That's a sticky issue for corrections officials because you can't simply just place somebody with a male or female population based on physical appearance, what's on their birth certificate or driver's license, or their self-identification of gender. Placing an inmate with the general population based on any of those decision points is potentially dangerous.

"It's a dilemma," Miller acknowledged. "It's a practical and legal consideration. One of your obligations is protecting inmates from harm so there needs to be separation. You probably need a small housing unit for just one or two inmates at a time. You have to have that flexibility."

Jail Superintendent William Zipfel told the story of a recent inmate who identified as female. She even had a birth certificate and driver's license that said she was female.

"If you saw her sitting at a table or walking into a room, you would not identify her as anything but female," Zipfel said.

She hadn't yet gone through a sex-change operation, however, and the Genesee County Jail can't house female inmates.

"There was not another facility that was going to take her as a female and we can't put her in a male facility," Zipfel said. 

Fortunately, a judge was willing to release her to the supervision of Genesee Justice, Zipfel said.

As good as the local criminal justice system is, Miller said, there is one gap local officials should consider addressing. Currently, the county doesn't have a good way to deal with people who don't have mental health or substance abuse problems but are otherwise in life circumstances where they would benefit from supervision while their cases are pending or while serving time for a conviction.

Miller recommended -- and said he's seen it work very well in other jurisdictions -- inclusion at a new jail location a facility that houses inmates during non-work hours but allows them to hold down a job. In fact, to live in the facility, inmates would be required to hold down a job and they would help cover the cost of their room and board.

The addition of a facility to house people in this subcategory of not-hardened-criminal, nor the mental health case, nor substance abuse case, especially during pre-trial periods, would be welcome by local judges and magistrates, Miller said. It's always a struggle, he said, for magistrates to decide what to do with this class of offender, whether to put them in jail or release them into the community.

The option would also assist the community by helping to prevent defendants from losing jobs, which can just make their problems worse, and therefore they become more of a burden on the community.

Jail for a defendant, Miller noted, is always the more expensive option.

The jail also isn't equipped to deal with the recently arrested who might be released in less than a day after being taken into custody.  

With local courts increasingly not opening for arrests at night, more defendants are being held for extended hours until the court is open for their initial arraignment.

Batavia PD, Le Roy PD, and Corfu PD do not have appropriate holding cells for such inmates. Batavia PD might look at adding holding cells in its plan for a new police headquarters, Miller said, but that is going to add to the expense of the facility and require extra staffing to monitor detainees.  

Once a police station has such holding cells, Miller said, the department's legal liability for the safety of the inmates increases tremendously.

It makes more sense, Miller said, to build the new jail with a plan to house and hold people for short-term stays and ensure those people are segregated from the regular jail population unless they are accused of serious crimes and are likely to be bound over anyway.

"The county can be the most cost-efficient and effective alternative to providing the service to the city, towns, and villages instead of letting them fend for themselves," Miller said.

Zipfel said one issue the local jail has with the state commission is how to handle new inmates.

When an inmate is processed they are classified in order to determine where in the jail they will be held. The state requires that they are tested for drugs and have a criminal history completed while they are being held for 72 hours before being classified. During that 72 hours, they should be under constant observation, the state says, and not mixed with another classification of inmate.  

The Genesee County Jail completes drug testing and a criminal background check immediately upon admission and then classifies them.

The difference in procedures is a source of friction between the local jail and the state commission, Zipfel said.

Any inmate who arrives at the jail under influence of drugs or alcohol must remain under constant watch, which the current jail makes difficult for corrections officers to do safely. 

Zipfel also discussed part of the admission procedure for female inmates: They are also given a pregnancy test. All of them. Jail officials are not allowed, by state regulation, from placing handcuffs on a female inmate who is pregnant or has been pregnant within the previous six weeks.

Miller acknowledged, based on his experience of going through the process in other jurisdictions, that some members of the public are going to try and find every reason not to build a new jail. He recommended officials develop a plan to educate the public on both the necessity and requirement the county is facing to build a new jail.

Which brought the legislators in the room to the discussion of whether it's realistic to discuss a regional facility shared with Orleans County. Setting aside the appearance that Orleans County seems to be heading in its own direction, officials discussed the logistic difficulty of a shared facility.

If it were in Orleans County, say, Barre, Genesee County would face the burden and expense and lost patrol time of driving inmates to and from Barre. There would also be issues to address about how the jail would be staffed, who would be responsible for it legally, or how that burden would be shared, and it isn't at all clear a shared facility would save either jurisdiction any money.

"If you have to build a jail that is twice the size with twice the staffing, how does that save money?" Legislator Marianne Clattenburg said.

There are states with examples of successful regional jails, Miller said, but in those states, the state government picked up half the cost of the jail.

That isn't likely to happen in New York.

"Unless the state picks up at least 50 percent of the cost, it's just not feasible," Legislator Gary Maha said.

For only the third time in program history, the Pembroke Dragons will play for a Section V boys basketball championship on Friday after beating Avon 65-50 in a semifinal game played last night in Warsaw.

"It’s a big deal for the program," said Head Coach Matt Shay. "Basketball hasn’t always something that the school has had a lot of success in, so it’s really exciting to see this group buy in and work and get that success."

On Friday, the Dragons fell behind in the second quarter but then went on a 14-0 run to close out the half and go into the locker room with a 10-point lead.

While Avon pulled close a couple of times in the second-half, Pembroke remained in control of the game.

"The lapses that I really didn't like were in the middle of the third and beginning of the fourth quarter whey they (Avon) started to make a run," Shay said. "They were making good cuts and we were caught sleeping, staring at the ball."

Shay said he was proud of Reid Miano's performance, who struggled to score in the first half but kept his head in the game and finished with 16 points on the night.

"We have so much depth and talent that we can survive if he doesn't have a great night," Shay said. "Some teams, their star guy starts off slow, they’re in trouble, but I really talked with him about just keep playing. You can be our best player and still not score. I’m so proud of him because at the end of this game, he didn’t do much in the first half, but in the second half, he really came alive."

Lucas Kohorst scored 20 points, Zach VonKramer and Ethan Stone each scored 10.

The Dragons, with a record of 23-0 is the #2 seed in the Class C1 bracket. On Friday, they play the #1 seed, Northstar Christian (22-1) for the championship at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.

There is an oil spill on the Thruway in the eastbound lane in the area of mile marker 404 because of a truck accident.

It's unclear if a truck was carrying oil or if the oil comes from the engine. 

Two trucks may have been involved and there is heavy damage. There's no word yet on how large of an oil spill.

Pembroke fire and Indian Falls fire dispatched.

UPDATE 5 p.m.: There is oil leaking from "the last two tractor-trailers involved," a chief reports.

UPDATE 5:03 p.m.: The spill is 50 to 60 feet from a waterway. Department of Environmental Conservation being notified.

UPDATE 6:02 p.m.: Reader-submitted photos added. Apparently, only one truck involved. It was carrying 44,000 pounds of flour for a pizza shop.

Madalyn R. Muntz, 32, of Evans Street, Batavia, is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, criminally using drug paraphernalia, 2nd, criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument, and unlawful possession of marijuana. While conducting an investigation on Liberty Street, members of the Local Drug Task Force located Muntz. She was taken into custody on a City Court warrant and at the time of her arrest allegedly found in possession of cocaine, a needle, drug paraphernalia, and a device for smoking marijuana. She was also arrested by Batavia PD on the warrant alleged failure to meet requirements of sentencing on a prior conviction. Muntz was released after posting bail.

Jonathan Edward Stanton, 35, of Vine Street, Batavia, is charged petit larceny, criminal use of drug paraphernalia, 2nd, criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument, and unlawful possession of marijuana. Police received a report of a suspicious male at the Rite Aid on West Main Street, Batavia. Upon investigation, Deputy Ryan DeLong and Deputy Brad Mazur determined Stanton allegedly stole $119.97 in merchandise from the store and was in possession of drug paraphernalia, a needle and marijuana.

Daniel E. Gubnitsky, 23, of Sheron Road, Greece, and Jennifer A. Schreiber, 18, of Batavia Stafford Townline Road, Batavia, are charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. Gubnitsky and Schreiber were charged after police were called to investigate a suspicious vehicle parked at the VFW Hall at 25 Edwards St., Batavia, at 9:22 a.m. Thursday. 

Joseph M. Tornabene, 26, of Dellinger Avenue, Batavia, is charged with harassment, 2nd. Tornabene allegedly struck another person in the face during an argument reported at 2:30 p.m. Friday at a location on Dellinger Avenue, Batavia. Tornabene left the scene. The victim signed a complaint and Tornabene later turned himself in at Batavia PD headquarters. 

Cale Daniel Rice, 41, of Drake Street Road, Elba, is charged with felony DWI, felony driving with a BAC of .08 or greater, speeding and failure to notify DMV of a change of address. Rice was stopped at 1:06 a.m. Saturday on Route 98 in Elba by Deputy Eric Meyer.

Shamique D. Hubbard, 28, of Hamlet, North Carolina, is charged with DWI, driving while impaired by drugs, and unlawful possession of marijuana. Hubbard was stopped at 10:51 p.m. Sunday in the Town of Batavia by State Police.

Matthew J. Gaudio, 29, of Rochester, is charged with unlawful possession of marijuana and aggravated unlicensed operation. Gaudio was stopped by State Police in Darien at 10:14 a.m. Thursday. Following arraignment, Gaudio was ordered held on bail.

Ervin Finkley, 50, of Rochester, is charged with grand larceny, 4th, criminal possession of a controlled substance, 7th, and fleeing from an officer in a motor vehicle. Desiree Ghee, 31, is charged with criminal possession of stolen property. Norman C. Ghee, 53, of Rochester, is charged with grand larceny, 4th. The trio was arrested by State Police in connection with an incident reported at 1:27 p.m. Thursday in the City of Batavia. All three were ordered held on bail. No further details released.

Press release from Nick Stankevich:

There will be a primary, and I plan on being your next Congressman. The people of this district deserve the freedom to choose their candidate.

You deserve the freedom of a primary, and you deserve a rural candidate who lives in the district. I’ve shown you, my neighbors, that I have a plan to beat Chris Collins come November, and it starts with you.

Throughout this campaign, I’ve promised you honesty and accountability, and that’s why I am staying in the race. I’ve committed to you not to divide us on partisan politics, but to unite on the values that make us all Americans.

I encourage you to listen to all candidates, to learn about who we are and what we stand for, and choose the candidate that you want to be your next Congressman.

You’ll learn that I believe in family, in accountability, and in you. Imagine a Congressman who does not hide in Washington or does not believe that this is the next step in a political career. I’m running because we can do better.

I came back to Western New York to take care of my family and my family’s business. I’ve taken what I learned from business school and experiences throughout my career in business to invest in new technology and grow my family’s small business. Our small businesses can do better. They deserve the chance to grow and to thrive.

Imagine a Congressman who does not worry about your political party, how much money you make, or what you look like. A Congressman who only cares about ensuring every single person in Western New York is doing better than they were before, and a Congressman who ensures our children can do better than we ever believed.

I’m looking forward to meeting you on the campaign trail and learning how to make Western New York a better place. Remember, this is about your values, your voice, and your vote.

A vehicle reportedly struck a tree and rolled over in the area of 1677 Main Road, East Pembroke.

There is heavy damage to the vehicle, according to a first responder, but the occupant is reported out and walking around.

East Pembroke fire and Mercy EMS responding.

Local leaders in law enforcement, fire services, mental health and other crisis intervention professionals met at the Fire Training Center on Friday to help map out what services and resources the county has available to people with mental health issues.

The goal is to find ways to get people in the midst of a mental health crisis help before it becomes a law enforcement issue, and when a mental health issue does involve police officers, those officers have the training and resources to deal with it effectively.

Don Kamin, director of the Institute for Police, Mental Health & Community Collaboration in Rochester, along with Martin Giuliano, led the discussion.

Kamin's program is four years old and was created and funded by the State Senate. Both Monroe County and Erie County already have such programs in place, and it's now Genesee County's turn for organizing the program and providing training. 

In a couple of months, Kamin and his team and his team will return to start training a group of officers in local law enforcement who will be part of a Crisis Intervention Team. They will undergo 40 hours of training, on top of the 15 they've already received in their law enforcement academy, in dealing with subjects suffering from mental health issues.

"Number one, we want to train them on how to recognize mental illness and other disorders and then how to de-escalate that," Kamin said. "Also, just as important, give them more knowledge of the local system."

There are a number of mental resources available in Genesee County that could assist officers in the field but knowledge about those resources isn't evenly distributed through local law enforcement. One of the program's goals is to map out all of those resources and provide officers with the information.

"It's a good opportunity for us to take a step back and see what other communities are doing so that when we bring the report back to the Genesee County we can say 'hey, over here in Monroe County, over in Westchester, or over in Albany County, they're looking at these practices. Have you considered moving in that direction?' " Giuliano said. "We can try to integrate the best practices throughout New York State and get them spread to all the different communities."

New York's program is part of a national trend toward providing police officers with additional mental issue crisis intervention training -- this year the state's law enforcement academies will require 20 hours of training -- and creating crisis intervention teams.

"The goal here is to divert people from the criminal justice system when at all possible and get them the support they need," Kamin said. "This isn't a get out of jail free card. If folks, regardless of the level of mental illness, commit a serious crime they're going to be arrested; they're going to 14 West Street, but many times they don't need to be sent there and we want to intervene."

A caller reports that he wasn't in an accident, but his car is on fire and it's in a cornfield off of Lake Street Road and Selden Road, Le Roy.

Le Roy fire dispatched. A chief request the first engine out be the brush truck.

UPDATE 7:07 p.m.: Because of the distance off the road, more brush trucks requested to the scene. It is a working fire. Pavilion, Bergen and Stafford all requested to the scene.

It's the vision of Rev. Henry Moore and the team at the Hope Center of Le Roy that the new ministry 42 Main St. will provide the community with a place of hope and help.

"We just want to show God's love through all of us and everything that we're doing," Moore said. "That's a lot of what we're based on, the fact of God's love and things will take shape from there."

The Hope Center, which is still just barely furnished, offers several programs for the community already.

There is L.I.F.T., which stands for Ladies in Faith Together. It's a program for single moms, where single moms can meet and support each other, share a meal, and grow in faith together.

The King's Table provides support for caregivers of children with special needs. 

"A couple of ladies who have special needs children took it upon themselves to start the program," Moore said. "Since then they've begun to bring families in and it gives them an opportunity to just meet together."

Fresh Start Literacy is a program for children to get extra help with reading.

"We really feel like this is going to be a powerful one because so many families have children who struggle to read," Moore said. "It's tough in a school atmosphere to get one-on-one help. We're willing to offer that."

Moms United in Prayer is a chance for women to pray together on a regular basis for children and schools.

Annually, the center offers Go Pro Spa Day and the Prom Dress Give Away.

Planned programs include Celebrate Recovery, a disaster relief program, children and teens programs and a New Life Clothing Center.

Much of Moore's ministry is based on the work, including the Prom Dress Give Away, he was doing with the Living Waters Church.

The Hope Center is now a separate nonprofit, and Moore is seeking donation and community support. The Hope Center has also started a building fund with the hope of eventually owning its own building.

"What we really want to do is get the community involved get all the churches to come together," Moore said. "I mean, no one person has a vision to make everything happen. One of the things we found was that someone has a vision and they don't know how to make it happen. We want to help that."

The rest of the leadership team includes Donna Friedman, Pat Bedford and Amy Bolton.

The motto of the Hope Center is that "hope is more than a wish. It is a confident expectation."

Moore said it's his goal to see the new ministry provide that kind of confident expectation to the Le Roy community.

Notre Dame lost its home game Class D1 semifinal playoff game to Naples on Saturday, 72-59.

Nico Zambito scored 15 points for the Fighting Irish. Gabe Macdonald scored 14, and Ryan Moffat scored 11.  

For Naples, Evan Bay scored 20 and Cole Rathbon scored 18. Bay hit five three-pointers.

The #3 seed in Class A2, the Batavia Blue Devils, was up Saturday in a Section V playoff game played in Batavia, by the #6 seed, Honeoye Falls-Lima, 48-41.

While Batavia jumped out to a 17-7 first quarter lead, behind the hot hand of Tee Sean Ayala, who scored 13 of his 20 points in the first eight minutes, HFL seemed to have figured out how to slow Ayala down. HFL held Ayala to seven points the rest of the way.

Worse, the Blue Devils didn't score at all in the second quarter and were held to 10 points in the fourth quarter -- a quarter in which HFL seemed to find it impossible to miss a shot, scoring 17 points.

Naz Pratt scored nine points for the Blue Devils and Antwan Odom scored six.

Top scorer for HFL was Garret Ruff with 13.

Notre Dame beat Addison in a Saturday afternoon Section V girls basketball playoff game at Notre Dame.

The final, 45-31. 

Margaret Sutherland scored 20 points for the Lady Irish. Callie McCulley scored 13 and Morgan Rhodes scored seven.

Also, in girls basketball Saturday:

• Byron-Bergen lost to Red Creek, 69-65. Emily Kaczmarek scored 17 points for the Lady Bees. Dana VanValkenburg scored 14, Kelsey Fuller, 12, and Julianna Amesbury, 8. For Red Creek, Katie Smith scored 19;
• Elba beat Whitesville, 56-21;
• Letchworth beat Pembroke, 56-40;
• Oakfield-Alabama beat Cal-Mum, 56-31.

A one-car accident is reported in the area of 246 Main Road, Pembroke. 

The vehicle is in a ditch and is smoking.

Unknown injuries.

Pembroke fire and Indian Falls fire along with Mercy EMS dispatched.

UPDATE 12:22 p.m.: Subjects are out of the vehicle. The vehicle is no longer smoking.

There's a report of wires down and a tree on fire in the area of 6283 Fisher Road, Oakfield.

Oakfield fire dispatched.

A vehicle has reportedly gone off the road and is in the water at Chick Road and Attica Road, Darien.

Darien fire and Darien ambulance dispatched.

UPDATE 11:15 p.m.: The vehicle was unoccupied.

UPDATE 12:30 p.m., Sunday: There was a search of the area last night and this morning. The operator was eventually located, safe.

Pembroke remained one of three undefeated Class C basketball teams in the state Friday with a 67-58 win over Gananda in a Section V playoff game.

Jamil Marable scored 20 points, Reid Miano, 18, and Lucas Kohorst, 17. 

Pembroke is now 21-0 on the season.

Also on Friday night, in Class D, #4 ranked, lost to #5 ranked Avoca, 73-59.

In girls basketball, Batavia beat Geneva, 57-48. Pavilion beat Naples, 56-29.

Agreeing with the prosecution that Shawn M. Twardowski, 35, formerly of Bank Street, Batavia, is a threat to society, Judge Charles Zambito sentenced him to two-and-a-half to five years in prison.

Zambito expressed the hope that while in prison, Twardowski will take advantage of programs available to him to help him with his mental health issues and substance abuse problems.

"Until you address those issues, you need to be removed from society," Zambito said.

A year ago, Twardowski was arrested for strangling and punching a beagle, attacking a woman at that location, stealing and attempting to disable her mobile phone and then, upon police arrival, barricading himself in a bedroom. 

He previously pled guilty to a burglary charge after first undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.

Zambito expressed dismay that Twardowski thought it appropriate to attack the beagle and the woman merely because the woman allowed the dog to lick a bowl.

The judge said Twardowski's record goes back to 2005 and is filled with charges related to violence, resisting arrest and violating court orders.

His attorney, Michael Locicero, said he wasn't not making excuses for his client's behavior but offered up as mitigating circumstances for his behavior, years of untreated mental health issues, his substance abuse, and a recent diagnosis of Huntington's Disease.

Twardowski told Zambito he didn't wish to make a statement in court.

The sentence was the middle range between the minimum available to Zambito and the maximum possible sentence in the case.