BELMONT - Over 200 jail birds are set for release from the Allegany County Jail in early October, giving area hunters a new target for the approaching hunting season.

The young pheasants are being raised at the Allegany County Jail as part of a program that is keeping inmates busy and morale high, Allegany County Sheriff William Tompkins said.

A half-acre flight pen behind the jail was set up by inmates using donated and used materials. Recently, the pen was stocked with around 200 young pheasants donated by the Western New York Chapter of the Safari Club.

The pheasants were raised at Wyoming Correctional Facility in Wyoming County before being transplanted to the Allegany County Jail.

The birds will mature into adulthood before being moved once again to the Hanging Bog Wildlife Management area in New Hudson in October.

“Before we are done, we will have pheasants in Allegany County again,” Sheriff Tompkins said.

Until then, inmates who have cleared a screening process will continue to tend to the birds almost every day. The inmates clean the pens and feed and water the birds.

Jail administrator Chris Ivers said the inmates are cleared to take part in the program if it is determined that they are not at risk to be violent or run away.

Sheriff Tompkins said the inmates are very motivated to be involved with the program. Most inmates would rather work outdoors than be stuck in their cells all day.

“There is no reason people should be in (the jail) watching the TV day in and day out,” he said.

Programs like raising pheasants and the jail’s vegetable garden are part of a new way of looking at incarceration. Inmates coming into the jail with no work history or few working skills can leave the jail in a better position to find and keep employment thanks to the programs, Sheriff Tompkins said.

“We have to get away from the (practice) of the last 100 years of bigger jails and more jails,” Sheriff Tompkins said. “There has to be a better way.”

Mr. Ivers said no tax dollars are used to fund the program. The materials and feed for the pheasant project were paid through a jail profit account, which saves a percentage of the fee for inmate phone calls for purposes that would benefit the inmates.

Ideally, the Sheriff’s Office will sponsor a youth hunt once the supply of pheasants living in the wild is high enough.

MEANWHILE, the jail’s garden is nearing its second harvest season.

Last year, the inmate work program raised nearly 3,000 pounds of tomatoes, cabbage, zucchini, and other vegetables.

The vegetables were then cooked in the jail’s kitchen, allowing the inmates to enjoy the result of their labor while saving the jail money on produce.

Mr. Ivers said the quarter-acre garden grew by one-third this year, so an even higher yield of crops is expected later this month. Another expansion is expected for next year’s growing season.

Over the spring, the garden added apple trees, blueberry bushes, and strawberry bushes.

(Contact reporter Kip Doyle at kdoyleoth@inbox.com)

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