COMPTROLLER FINDS NASSAU JAIL COMMISSARY
CONTINUES TO OPERATE AT A LOSS

Labor Costs Bring County’s Loss to $315,000 Annually

In a follow-up audit of the Nassau County Correctional Center’s commissary that was released today, County Comptroller Howard Weitzman found that the facility, which is staffed by six correction officers assigned full-time, is operating at an average loss of $315,000 per year.

The Correctional Center ignored almost all of the recommendations of the 2000 audit, which called for privatizing the commissary. The commissary sells toiletries, writing materials, snack foods, and similar items to prisoners.

Comptroller Weitzman said, “By not considering personnel costs as a cost of operations, the Corrections Department continues to overstate the commissary’s profits. It claims the commissary makes about $200,000 annually, but in reality it actually incurs very substantial losses of $315,000 per year. That figure is the true amount, after including approximately $550,000 in personnel costs.

“Instead of privatizing the commissary as recommended, the Correctional Center assigned an additional, sixth correction officer to help run it,” Comptroller Weitzman noted. The assignment of six officers to work full-time in the commissary resulted in an approximate increase of $50,000 in personnel costs from the amounts noted in the 2000 audit. At that time five full-time employees were assigned there, at an average annual cost of $500,000.

In addition to the savings on labor costs, the Comptroller cited other positive effects of a proposed privatization:

• An increased financial return to the Correctional Center’s inmate fund;
  
• Elimination of the county’s loss from damaged goods; and
  
• Elimination of the risk of theft and pilferage (the contractor would purchase and own all product inventories).

“Under state regulations, jail commissaries are allowed to break even or make a modest return, with the profits to be used only for purposes of prisoner welfare and rehabilitation.

“A professional service firm can and should run the commissary, producing a real profit for the benefit of the prisoners, while allowing correction officers to perform their primary duties,” Comptroller Weitzman said.

“Privatization is entirely appropriate and is used successfully in other jurisdictions. Alternatively, the facility could consider using non-uniformed personnel whose job titles more clearly match the type of work performed by the officers now operating the commissary. With either of these alternatives, additional correction officers would be available for deployment at the Correctional Center, and the county would save money on operating costs and officers’ overtime.”

The full report may be downloaded by clicking on the report title below.

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Nassau County Correctional Center Commissary Operations:
Follow-up to Audit Report of September 8, 2000 ( ~ 39 kB - 12 pages "pdf" file)

Corrective Action Plan ( ~ 17 kB - 2 page "pdf" file)