MONTICELLO — The new Sullivan County Jail has sat empty for some time now since its construction was complete. A ribbon cutting celebration was held last October, and the move was supposed to happen a couple months after.

At the Executive Committee meeting of the legislature on Thursday, Chairman Rob Doherty stated the move to the new jail will happen on May 30.

However, according to Sullivan County Undersheriff Eric Chaboty, that was an approximation and the Sheriff's Office won't announce the date as it could cause security and safety issues.

The new jail was built to replace the current 110-year-old jail, and the total cost is over $100 million. The new jail, located on Old Route 17, is larger and the Sheriff's Road Patrol and Civil Division has already moved in.

Chaboty said they are still waiting for approval to move inmates from the New York State Commission of Correction, the state regulatory agency that evaluates all correctional facilities and county jails. They will let them know when they are clear to make the move.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to delays in the move. Chaboty said they were Initially supposed to train large groups of corrections officers (CO's) in the new jail; each CO requires 40 hours of training on the new systems and such at the jail.

Chaboty said that came to a halt around March 16 because of social distancing requirements and a ban on large groups.

They decided to move forward with smaller groups of CO's, which changed the training schedule to seven weeks. Chaboty said they theoretically have two weeks to go on that schedule.

The move to the new jail will take one day. “As soon as we're physically able, we'll move,” Chaboty said.

As previously reported in the Democrat, about 30 inmates tested positive for coronavirus in the jail. Chaboty said only three or four are showing any symptoms and they are mild. Everybody else is asymptomatic.

The jail is locked down to prevent the spread of infection and an outside company came in with special equipment to clean the jail, in addition to the regular cleaning at each shift (there are three shift changes per day).

The legislature on Thursday voted unanimously to create and fill three temporary positions at the jail—two food service helpers and one cook.

The jail normally has two food service helpers, two cooks and one cook manager working in the kitchen, however two cooks and one food service helper are currently on leave for various reasons for an unknown period of time.

Those positions will be temporarily filled during the leave of absence and abolished when the employees return to work.