The Greene County Legislature is proud to announce the Accreditation of the Greene County Sheriff’s office Jail Division by the New York State Sheriffs Association (NYSSA). Legislators welcomed Sheriff Peter J. Kusminsky and his team to the Frank P. Stabile, Jr. Legislative Chambers in Catskill to officially receive this honor.
Agencies are not mandated to be accredited; it is a voluntary process that requires countless hours of work to ensure that the jail policies, training, and daily operations are compliant.
On Monday, April 15, Peter Kehoe (Executive Director of NYSSA) and Craig Dumond (NYSSA President) presented the accreditation to the Sheriff as well as Jail Superintendent Michael Overbaugh, Lieutenant Dan Rubino, and Accreditation Officer Alan Scully at a meeting of the Greene County Legislature’s Public Safety committee.
“I think this is a particularly appropriate time for us to be doing this, for in just a couple more weeks, we will be observing National Correctional Officers Week,” Kehoe said. “This is where the whole country is encouraged to pause and recognize the importance and difficulty of the work performed by our correctional officers.”
Achieving accreditation requires that the Greene County Jail meet a very stringent set of standards developed by experts in the field. There are 166 individual components, and the jail must submit itself to outside scrutiny. An independent board of assessors reviews the jail’s operations in detail to ascertain whether or not the jail meets those many demanding standards. The board of assessors conducted its review of the operations of the Greene County Corrections Division, and has certified that the jail meets or exceeds every standard.
This is the first time in history that the Greene County Jail Division has ever received such an accreditation attesting to their meeting a set of nationally recognized standards and identified best practices. The significance of this outstanding achievement cannot be overstated.
This NYSSA Accreditation runs from April 15, 2024, through April 14, 2029. The process does not end at achieving the accreditation status, it is an ever changing and ongoing process to maintain.
The Greene County Sheriff’s office provides responsive and professional law enforcement services to the residents of Greene County and its visitors.
