ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Monroe County Legislator Rachel Barnhart today introduced a resolution requiring the Sheriff’s Office to provide the Legislature with a complete accounting of Trust Fund 9620, the Jail Commissary-Phone fund, on a biannual basis.
“Elected officials, and by extension the public, deserve access to information necessary to evaluate how this fund is used. These are dollars from incarcerated individuals and their families,” Barnhart said. “The Sheriff’s Office has run out the clock on basic oversight requests for over a year. This resolution puts a real reporting requirement in place so that stalling is no longer an option.”
The fund contains commissions the county has collected on phone calls and tablet purchases made by incarcerated people and their families. The Legislature has treated the fund as one meant to benefit inmates, including a 2021 vote authorizing its use to support free phone calls. The county’s own annual financial report states the funds are restricted to inmate welfare.
Barnhart first requested expenditure information from the Sheriff’s Office during a Legislature meeting in May 2025. When no records were provided, she sent a formal letter in September 2025 and followed up by email in February 2026. The Sheriff’s Office did not produce records until March 2026, ten months after the initial request, and the records covered only 2024.
The 2024 expenditure list the Sheriff’s Office finally produced raises serious questions. The fund paid for Sheriff’s Office uniforms, conference travel, office furniture, and nearly $28,000 in bottled water. The fund also paid for $118,000 in legal fees related to a misconduct investigation involving a high-level official at the jail, according to deputies who were interviewed by the firm who came forward to Barnhart.
There is more at stake besides transparency. There are differing opinions on how the funds must be used. The Sheriff’s counsel has claimed in writing that no state regulations or guidelines govern the fund, while the County Executive’s office has separately said that a state statute does impose restrictions on how the money can be spent.
Despite repeated requests, the Sheriff’s Office has refused to turn over the 2025 expenditures. In June, Barnhart filed an open records request that remains unfulfilled. Under current law, the only way to compel a government agency to comply with an open records request is a lawsuit, an option that would cost taxpayers money.
The resolution requires the Sheriff’s Office to provide the Legislature with a list of expenditures from the fund twice a year, including dollar amounts, vendors, items or services purchased, and the fund’s remaining balance. It also requires the Sheriff to turn over, within thirty days, a full expenditure history dating back to January 1, 2020, along with any policies or directives governing the fund. Biannual reporting would begin in January 2027.
“This started in May 2025, when the Legislature voted to rescind free phone calls at the jail. The trust fund had been paying for those calls. I wanted to know where the money was going instead. I still don’t have a complete answer, and what I do know is disturbing. We need all the facts,” Barnhart said.