Nassau OKs sheriff appointment

Michael Sposato's rise from jailhouse cook to the top ranks of the Nassau County correctional system is now complete.

The Nassau Legislature has unanimously approved an appointment by County Executive Edward Mangano to make Sposato Nassau's sheriff. Sposato had been interim sheriff since February 2008. The vote occurred Aug. 1.

"Mike Sposato has effectively implemented cost-cutting policies at the jail, including the privatization of inmate health care, while maintaining the highest levels of security at the facility," Mangano said.

Mangano credited Sposato with reducing overtime at the Nassau County Correctional Center to its lowest point since 2003 and for generating county revenue by housing 125 Suffolk inmates.

But Mike Adams, president of the Nassau County Sheriff Officers Association, said "I am disappointed no corrections officers were found to be qualified." The union represents 1,050 county correction officers.

Sposato has worked at the jail since 1994, originally as a cook and later as kitchen supervisor. In 2005, then-Sheriff Edward Reilly chose Sposato as his chief of staff. He was later promoted to undersheriff, the jail's No. 2 spot.

The sheriff officers union complained at the time that Sposato's promotions were helped by patronage and political connections.

Sposato said Tuesday he rose in the ranks through hard work, not political connections. "I worked from the bottom to the top," he said. "Not too many people can say that."

Conditions at the jail have generated controversy in recent years.

An inmate suicide in January marked the fourth in a yearlong period -- 10 percent of suicides by prisoners over the prior year statewide. The jail houses 1,500 inmates, 1.7 percent of the state's incarcerated population.

Federal monitors oversaw the jail from 1999 through 2005 following an inmate's beating death. The review also focused on issues of overcrowding and the jail's medical care.

The Nassau County sheriff earns $120,536 a year.