Byline: MARV CERMAK Staff writer Schenectady Donald Watts believes an alternative facility for jail inmates convicted as first-time, nonviolent offenders will help stem the burgeoning state prison population. - ``Prisons are the No. 1 industry in the nation and they aren't very effective,'' said Watts, Schenectady County Jail chaplain. - The recidivism rate is 76 percent, he said. ``If a private company had that type of product rejection rate, it wouldn't be in business very long.'' - Watts believes there must be an effort to divert county jail inmates before they get into the state prison system where many become trained criminals, he said. ``Once they're in prison tiers with hardened criminals, they hear nothing but methods of beating the system -- all day and …
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