NORWICH – Revenues anticipated from boarding out-of-county prisoners at the Chenango County Public Safety Facility are considerably down.

Sheriff Ernest Cutting told members of the Safety and Rules Committee Wednesday that the corrections department has brought in only $70,000 of the $450,000 budgeted for the year. The amount budgeted was $100,000 more than in 2008 as a result of boarding-in revenues that topped a surprising $1 million last year.

Times have changed drastically. Farmed-in prisoner tallies are down across New York, Cutting said, with 226 farmed out currently compared to 400 at this point a year ago.

The three year-old Chenango County Public Safety Facility can house a total of 133 prisoners, but has averaged only 75 for the first six months of the year. The jail previously averaged 90 prisoners a day.

There were 73 incarcerated as of Thursday, including 17 farmed in inmates. Last year, an average of 40 hailed from other counties.