The strike by state corrections officers in February may have ended in March, but the chronic problem of understaffing in the state prison system hasn’t. Neither has the trickle-down impact on county jails across the state, with Erie County jails still housing roughly 150 extra state prisoners a day despite the state announcing it would begin taking prisoners back from local jails in May.

For the first time in more than five years, according to Sheriff John Garcia, the number of inmates and detainees held in the Holding Center and Erie County Correctional Facility surpassed 900 last month. It’s more common for the number of jail residents to hover in the 700s.

These persistently high figures have an impact on the cost, personnel and jail space needed to accommodate the additional state p

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