BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County leaders on Friday spoke out on the future of the holding center in downtown Buffalo.

"The holding center is just an old, antiquated facility that is very difficult to maintain,” said Mark Poloncarz, Erie County executive. “It is not a place suitable for modern incarceration methods.”

Poloncarz and Sheriff John Garcia announced the closure of the Erie County Holding Center and the construction of a new combined site on land the county already owns with its correctional facility in Alden, part of which will also be demolished and renovated.

County leaders released the results of a new assessment, showing the $428 million project is the most cost-effective plan out of four potential options.

The county looks to borrow the money over a term of 30 years, which will prove to be the most affordable for the residents of Erie County.

"Doing nothing is really not an option,” said Poloncarz. “It will actually cost a lot of money to build this new facility, but we will have a better and safer facility not just for the detainees and inmates, but for the staff that works there. And it had to be done.” 

Poloncarz added that if the county did move forward with the project, there would be more than $220 million in maintenance costs to make improvements to the holding center and the correctional facility, almost half of what the new project costs.

Leaders say having one facility will save millions of dollars in part by reducing duplicate services and lowering staffing levels through attrition. It also allows for future expansions, which is something the other three options did not offer.

"This is not a want. This is a need,” said Garcia. “This is a new world of corrections. It's no longer jails and prisons. It's about correcting behavior, helping out with medical issues, to make them better and not to have them return.”

The project now moves into the design phase.