Nassau jail watchdog panel long overdue

In the midst of his vast budget crisis, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano could use an inexpensive achievement. Here's a thought: Why not finally get around to doing something that the county charter has required since 1990, but which his predecessors never really got done: naming a civilian board of visitors to keep an eye on the county's often-troubled jail?

The old Board of Supervisors, which preceded the county legislature as Nassau's legislative branch, took the recommendation of a consultant and mandated the creation of a seven-member board to handle inmate complaints. There were struggles over the composition of the board, and eventually, the issue dropped off the radar screen. Neither County Executive Thomas Gulotta nor his successor, Tom Suozzi, ever fully established the board.

Still, the law is in the charter, and it makes sense. This jail has experienced too many inmate suicides. And there were the 1999 beating death of an inmate at the hands of correction officers, which led to federal oversight of the facility, and this year, state citations for violations of minimum standards, such as too much use of solitary confinement.

It's time for the county to obey its own law and put in place a group of citizens who can add to the scrutiny that the state's Commission of Correction provides. The commission is one agency with a lot of jails to oversee. Nassau's leaders were smart enough in 1990 to see that the jail needed a watchdog. Mangano should finish this long-overdue task and appoint a cross-section of civilians, with expertise and empathy for both inmates and officers, to help make this jail better.