Forum reveals little daylight between two candidates for Erie County sheriff

Republican John C. Garcia said he would do so through a revamped, expanded and faster-moving professional standards division. Independent candidate Ted DiNoto said he would treat many accusations of abuse and mistreatment of inmates as criminal investigations that could lead to prosecution when enough evidence is found.

Both said they favor more widespread use of body cameras, and both took similar if not identical positions on topics presented Tuesday by the County Legislature-created advisory board for the county-run jails.

All four sheriff candidates were invited to the online forum, said the advisory board's Cindi McEachon, who read off the questions. Democratic candidate Kim Beaty told The Buffalo News she did not take part because of a scheduling conflict with a class she attended, sponsored by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services and the Office of Mental Health, on preventing suicides in jails and police lockups.

However, Conservative Party nominee Karen Healy-Case, whose campaign has gone quiet since she lost the Republican primary, said she was not invited and did not know about the forum. "I would have loved to show up," she said. 

McEachon said she first invited Healy-Case with a message sent to her campaign's email, and when that kicked back as undeliverable she sent a message to the campaign's Facebook page. She provided The Buffalo News with a screenshot of the message sent Sept. 6.

Garcia, a Republican, and DiNoto, a Republican running on an independent line, are rivals for the voters who see them as the ideological centrists in the four-person field. While the two might benefit from differentiating themselves, they took similar stands on the mostly jail-related questions they faced.

For example, both said they favor the concept of restorative justice, assuming that both the victim and the offender are willing to find the best way to repair the harm caused by a crime, with the offender accepting responsibility. Said DiNoto: “I am completely for restorative justice.”

Both lamented but accepted the responsibility of responding to mentally ill offenders that fell to police, jails and the courts when states began closing many of their large asylums decades ago. While both talked of the need to train the staff and protect mentally ill inmates, both said jail isn’t always the best place for the severely mentally ill.

DiNoto spoke of the need for more community treatment options and said some defendants could be stabilized at what he called “stabilization centers” before reaching a cell. Garcia said some defendants should be in a mental health facility, not a correctional facility.

“This is about helping our fellow neighbor,” he said.

Both agreed that inmates should be able to receive approved medications that can help them come off the addictive drugs they took on the outside, an approach called "medication assisted treatment." Both said they favor programs that stem recidivism, with DiNoto saying the Jail Management Division now provides more programs than most people probably realize.

Both talked in their strongest terms when asked how they would deal with deputies or corrections officers accused of abusing an inmate, a practice that arose often enough to prompt state and federal agencies to sue Erie County roughly a decade ago. This year, the State Attorney General's Office filed a court case that forced Sheriff Timothy B. Howard to admit his team did not always properly investigate reports of sexual contact between deputies and inmates.

Said DiNoto: “Every single one will be handled as a criminal investigation … I will not have a deputy under my command violating his oath.”

Said Garcia: “I do not want to work with abusive, criminal bullies.”

Further, both candidates said they would work personally with the advisory board that sponsored the event. The County Legislature created the Community Corrections Specialist Advisory Board in response to the chronic mismanagement issues that marked Howard’s 16 years in office.

While Howard does not participate in the advisory board’s meetings, his undersheriff and Jail Management Division superintendent do.

Howard opted not to seek a fifth term, so someone else will be sheriff next year. He has endorsed Garcia, a retired detective who played many roles during his 25 years with the Buffalo Police Department.

But when asked for his priorities, Garcia did not sound like a Howard-endorsed candidate because he said he sees the Sheriff's Office as needing significant improvement.

He said he wants to transform it into a professional, modern agency, with new training and new technology. "You have to bring in a culture," he said. "It starts with leadership.”

When a spotlight falls on certain events, he said he “will be there, front and center, to answer the questions.” Howard usually lets aides speak publicly about issues that arise in the Correctional Facility, the Holding Center or out on the road. Howard holds few public events and after his re-election in 2013 took a part-time job at M&T Bank.

“I won’t be an absentee landlord,” Garcia said. 

DiNoto, a detective lieutenant with the Amherst Police Department, also has taken on many roles during his years there. He said he wants Erie County deputies to know they “can and will be the number one agency in the state of New York.”

“I want to bring back the trust, the pride and the morale,” he said.