BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – Sheriff Fred Akshar has expanded visitation hours at the Broome County Sheriff’s Correctional Facility for the second time this year, tripling the number of allowed hours since taking office.

Families and loved ones of those incarcerated at the facility will now have 47 hours of open visitation time per week, with no appointment necessary. When Akshar took office in January, inmates were allowed 15 visitation hours per week, by appointment only. By February, he had doubled the allotted time to 30 open hours per week.

“We made a commitment to the community on Day One to help build a stronger, safer community for Broome County residents, and a large part of fulfilling that commitment is through improving conditions at the Correction Facility. We don’t want to see the incarcerated people currently in our care ever stay with us again, and we can better prepare them to be successful, contributing members of our community on the outside if we provide more constructive services and support for them while they’re on the inside,” said Akshar.

Guests can visit their loved ones Monday through Friday during various times throughout the day. The visitation expansion coincides with the facility’s increased staffing levels after a successful hiring campaign for new and transferring Corrections Officers.

“Our Corrections Officers and staff are doing an outstanding job implementing these new policies, integrating their newer colleagues and working every day to keep everyone both working and living in the Correctional Facility safe and healthy,” said Akshar. “Whether it’s expanding visitation hours, hiring the largest class of new corrections officers in the history of the Facility, creating a new Criminal Investigations Team to stop contraband in its tracks, the rapid expansion of support and education programs or the new correctional facility garden, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made on a variety of fronts in only a few short months. We’re looking forward to more exciting announcements in the coming weeks.”

To view the expanded schedule, visit gobroomecounty.com.