Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. on Wednesday will announce plans for the nation’s first correctional intelligence center, designed to share information with law enforcement agencies statewide about potential threats from within jails and prisons.
The Corrections Intelligence Center in Yaphank will begin operations in the summer and initially be staffed with intelligence officers from the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, Westchester Department of Corrections, the Morris County, New Jersey Sheriff’s Office, New York City Department of Corrections and State Department of Correction and Community Supervision.
The center, officials said, will also include remote participation from 20 additional counties across the state. Information will also be shared with task forces embedded in the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the United States Marshals Service, along with Suffolk County’s police department and district attorney’s office, officials said.
“Corrections intelligence is underutilized and is a valuable tool in the public and keeping law enforcement officers safe,” Toulon said in a statement. “We are doing what has never been done before — proactively collecting and disseminating trends about contraband, drugs, gang affiliations and potential threats through this network of jail and prison systems.”
To accommodate the growing staff, Suffolk is working on renovating an unused portion of the original Yaphank jail, with 2,500-square-feet set aside for the intelligence center. The initial phase of renovation is expected to be complete in early summer.
Toulon, who will launch the intelligence center on Wednesday at a news conference with law enforcement and corrections officials from across the region, is also expected to announce plans to expand the facility nationally and internationally, officials said.
Center intelligence staff will utilize the facility to collect and disseminate information about contraband, drugs such as…
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