Bronx County, New York — The Jail, the Sheriff, the Judges

The Detention Center

New York City jail system (Rikers Island and hospital prison wards)

Operated byNew York City Department of Correction
Department address75-20 Astoria Boulevard South, Queens, NY 11370 (NYS Commission of Correction facility list)
Facilities namedEric M. Taylor Center, George R. Vierno Center, Otis Bantum Correctional Center, Robert N. Davoren Center, Rose M. Singer Center, West Facility, plus Bellevue and Elmhurst hospital prison wards
One published capacity figureRose M. Singer Center described as an 800-bed facility

Source: NYC Department of Correction — Facilities · checked 2026-09-20

Transparency rating

5/10Partial

✓The jail is named
✓Who is in custody
✓Beds and daily population
✗What it costs taxpayers — not published
✗Deaths in custody — not published
✓PREA audits
✗Independent inspection — not published
✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
✓How to post bond
✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Bronx County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-09-20. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

Year builtNot found
Original costNot found
Paid for byNot found
BedsNot found

Since then

Not found

The Sheriff

Not found

Runs the jailNo — Bronx County has no sheriff-run county jail; the New York City Department of Correction runs the jails serving all five boroughs
New York City SheriffNew York City has an elected Sheriff who is a city officer under the Department of Finance and does not run the jails

Still needed

Detention budget requested vs. approved, by year
Jail staffing levels and vacancy rate
Lawsuits and settlements involving the jail

Source: New York City Department of Correction · checked 2026-09-20

The Judges

New York's county and supreme court justices are state judicial officers, not county officials; city, town and village justices also set bail for people arrested in their areas.

Bronx County Circuit Court

Not found

Still needed

The county's bond schedule
Share of the jail population held pretrial
Median time from booking to first appearance

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-09-20

The County Legislature or Board of Supervisors

They pay for the jail. In most counties the sheriff runs it.

What they controlThe jail budget, the building itself, and the agreements that rent its beds to other agencies. Several counties also have an elected County Executive. In Westchester a county Department of Correction runs the jail rather than the sheriff.
What they don'tDay-to-day operations, and state oversight. The sheriff is separately elected and keeps the jail in most counties (NY Correction Law art. 20), while the State Commission of Correction sets the standards, inspects the facility and investigates every death in custody. The five New York City counties have no county sheriff jail at all — the city Department of Correction runs them.
NoteBronx County is a borough of New York City; the City Council is the legislative body.
The boardNew York City Council →
Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →

Notes on the record

Bronx County has no sheriff-run county jail. The checks were judged on the New York City Department of Correction's own site, which is the first-party publisher for the five boroughs.
The Department's data page publishes average daily population and demographic population reports and Prison Rape Elimination Act reports, including annual sexual abuse allegation reports and facility audit reports.
The person-in-custody lookup is the Department's own tool and shows where a person currently in its custody is held.
The post-bail page sets out where and how bail may be paid and states that online bail payment is unavailable.
No death-in-custody record, budget document, inspection report or housing contract was found on the Department's own pages; Board of Correction oversight material sits on a separate city agency's site.
The Department's send-money page says transfer agents charge a fee but publishes no rates, so fees stays no.
State inspection/oversight: New York's State Commission of Correction oversees every local correctional facility in the state, sets the minimum standards they must meet, inspects them, and investigates every death in custody.

These three offices decide who sits in a cell in Bronx County and what it costs the people who live here. Nationally, almost 77% of the people who died in local jails in 2019 had not been convicted of anything, and suicide was the leading single cause of those deaths (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mortality in Local Jails, 2000–2019).

How much is your sheriff — and your judge — costing you?

Your VOTE is POWERFUL.

The sheriff who runs this jail is elected. So are the legislators who pay for it.

Names verified 2026-09-20 · dollars and outcomes still being gathered