Prison Project Near Completion
A 160-bed male housing addition and new booking center with a separate juvenile processing area are to be completed at Cumberland County Prison in the coming weeks, according to county officials. Reported by The Sentinel.
Construction of all of the cells has been done and everything is under roof at the Middlesex Township facility. Some exterior lighting and landscaping work still needs to be done, but everything appears to be on schedule, said Pat Slattery, the county’s director of capital projects.
Inside, crews are equipping control rooms and getting security systems online. The fit-out of the 3,500-square-foot booking center is also being done. Located on the prison’s east side, it features a gated sally port to transport prisoners and a separate secure public entrance.
There will be both individual and group adult holding cells in addition to the two juvenile holding cells. There are four new housing units with 20 cells and 40 beds each.
“Hopefully by mid-January we will be fully operational,” Warden Earl Reitz said of this $11 million first phase, which will increase inmate capacity by 40 percent.
The county broke ground on the project last August. Construction was in high gear by September 2008, Slattery said, noting that aside from the new construction, a great deal of work was also needed on the prison’s infrastructure.
This included a new emergency generator, demolition of the boiler room and installation of new equipment, installation of new electrical service and replacement of the piping and ductwork for new plumbing and HVAC.
Capacity
While a growing county population and an increase in crime largely drove officials to expand the prison, the age of the facility — which opened in May 1985 — also contributed to the decision. When phase one is completed, two additional phases will be needed to renovate the original section.
Phases two and three will include replacing windows, doors and locks, as well as kitchen and medical suite additions and other renovations to accommodate the increased prison population. In addition, a female housing/work release unit and visitation areas will be expanded.
The second phase is scheduled to start in late summer or early fall next year, Slattery said. The county has not yet bid the project.
It will coincide with the construction of a new county public safety building across the street on Claremont Road, behind the former agricultural extension building and Claremont Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Currently, the public safety department, which includes the 911 call center, is housed in the basement of the prison.
The county broke ground on that project — a 21,000-square-foot standalone building — earlier this month. It is slated to open in May 2011, moving public safety out of the prison.
During phase two of the prison project, male inmates will be moved into the new housing units as remodeling is done in the old sections, Slattery explained.
“We need those beds to do phase two,” he said, noting that the true benefit of the new cells won’t be felt until all of the renovations are completed in the latter phases.
When the project broke ground, it was projected that the entire expansion and renovation would take about five years to complete. Each phase was estimated to take about 450 days.
The prison has a total of 398 beds now. The average daily inmate population for the year is 377, Reitz said. That includes any federal inmates the county might house and female inmates from Perry County — about 45 to 50 at any given time, Reitz noted.
The facility has been running at or near capacity for quite some time, officials noted. Planning discussions to expand began in 2004 and 2005, the warden said.
Inmate costs
As the new housing units come online and prison officials can increase capacity, Reitz said, there will be more opportunities to house inmates from neighboring counties that are experiencing overcrowding, as well as federal inmates.
“That helps offset cost,” he said. Beds are rented at $55 per day for federal inmates.
The cost to hold a single prisoner is about $53 per day, the warden explained, between staff, medical expenses and other operational costs.
With the additional units, the prison will have to increase staff, which now stands at about 120, according to Reitz.
“The staffing investment is substantial,” he said, expecting to stagger new cell openings. “Every 24-hour post requires at least five staff.”
As county population continues to grow in the coming years, the crime rate will inevitably grow with it. Hoping to control the prison population moving forward and get long-term use out of the expansion project, Reitz said, officials will continue to work to enhance intermediate punishment and earned time programs.
Intermediate programs include options such as work release with electronic monitoring. Earned time allows inmates to reduce their sentence by participating in treatment or rehabilitation programs.
“We would have cots in all of the hallways without these programs,” Reitz said.
From 2000 to 2008, criminal dockets filed in the Court of Common Pleas increased 22 percent. DUI cases have tripled in that span, clogging up the courts and the county prison.
At the magisterial district judge level, DUI case filings have increased 45 percent in three years.
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