By Mark Gilger Jr.
Republican & Herald
POTTSVILLE, Pa. — The need for a prerelease center has become even more apparent now that the Schuylkill County Prison can no longer take sentenced criminals, President Judge William E. Baldwin told the prison board Wednesday.
“We have to develop programs that we can get them ready to be out in society in a way they don’t come back to us or this overcrowding problem will never go away,” Baldwin said. “We cannot afford not to do it. Now the cost of not doing it is going to be substantial.”
On May 4, the state Department of Corrections ordered that the prison can no longer take any additional prisoners sentenced between six months to five years until its average monthly inmate population is at or below its approved capacity of 277. Criminals serving maximum sentences of two years or more can be sent to state prison. The county prison can still house criminals awaiting trial and parole violators can be reincarcerated at other facilities, Baldwin said.
The average population at the prison in April was 282. On Wednesday, the prison had 292 inmates, 49 of which were triple celled.
The county currently has 32 inmates being housed at other facilities: 22 men at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, Thornton, and 10 women at the Centre County Correctional Facility, Bellefonte. The county commissioners approved the agreement with Centre County earlier Wednesday. The cost to house inmates at both facilities is $65 a day per inmate. A few women were previously sent to the State Correctional Institution in Muncy, but none are currently being housed there.
Commissioners Chairman George F. Halcovage, who is also prison board chairman, said the county currently in negotiations to house additional inmates at facilities in Columbia and Berks counties.
“We are in active negotiations with Columbia County and I think we are near having an agreement done,” Halcovage said. “The one thing about Centre County is they can take female prisoners. Every other facility cannot. It is a statewide problem.”
He said Berks County may be able to house up to 50 inmates.
“The number of people coming into the criminal system is on the rise at a time when we have to get our population down,” Baldwin said. “I easily foresee that until we get another facility of our own, the county is going to have to be paying to keep maybe 80 people in other prisons. That is going to be $1.5 million to $2 million a year, not counting transportation costs.”
He continued, “I made this case before. I think it is evident now. We need to have another facility, a prerelease center where we can remove people from prison into an area where we can supervise them, they can start to assimilate back into the community after we give them counseling and treatment and we keep an eye on them so if they relapse, we can bring them back in and move them in and out as they are ready to go.”
Until then, Baldwin said criminals will be processed as soon as possible, judges are going to be more stringent on continuing court cases and guilty pleas are going to be heard as soon as they ready.
“The Department of Corrections is looking for us to average 277, so we need to get our population probably down to 250 because there are going to be times when a drug bust is made and people come in maybe 20 at a time,” Baldwin said. “We have to be able to absorb those and still keep our average below 277 if we want this classification to change and we need the classification to change because we can not continue to operate like this.”
Baldwin said offices like the District Attorney’s, public defender and adult probation are already dealing with increased workloads without more staff due to more people being in supervision programs. He said 90 people will be on electronic monitoring programs by next week. That is the most ever at one time, he said.
“I think we need to look at a long-term solution and I know according to the DOC we need to move quickly,” Commissioner Gary J. Hess said.
A prerelease center was previously proposed, but it was scrapped in 2011 when bids averaged about $4.2 million, which was $1 million than budgeted.
The DOC will review its order in three months.
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