Jail records still in custody

The state agency overseeing construction of the Suffolk jail wants its documents on the project from the county. No problem, officials said. They'll turn them over starting Monday. That all sounds so amicable and routine you'd never imagine that Judicial Facilities Agency officials have been trying to get the records since November and last week asked the attorney general to intercede.

Suffolk officials said the problem was a failure to communicate. They've simply held the documents under a 2007 agreement with judicial facilities officials, who can visit and peruse them anytime they want. Now that the agency's desire to control its own records is clear, county officials said lawyers will review the voluminous paperwork and hand it over in phases as the review proceeds. Ticktock, ticktock.