The Pennsylvania SPCA closed its Monroe County shelter Thursday after 50 years of operation, citing lack of community support and money.   Prisons around the country provide a wide variety of programs involving animals, from pre-adoption training to full shelter services. In Maricopa County, Ariz., famed Sheriff Joe Arpaio — better known for issuing inmates pink boxer shorts — converted an old jail into a shelter and staffed it with corrections officers and female inmates to care for the animals.   “I think it’s a great idea. It shouldn’t be discounted,” said state Rep. Mario Scavello, R-176.

Scavello, who suggested the idea, said the benefits would go beyond the care of the animals.  “It’s a therapy for the prisoners and it teaches them to care for somebody. It teaches the prisoners a sense of responsibility. It can become a trade for these inmates. And rather than play basketball and watch cable television all the time, we will have productive inmates,” he said … “All we need is to put some type of facility in there to house the animals,” he said. “I’d like to see the commissioners look into this. If I were a county commissioner, I’d be doing it now. I’d find the dollars to do it” …

But there are practical obstacles too. Such as supervision of inmates by the sheriff’s department.   “We use prisoner work details, but we have more work than prisoners. It’s up to the sheriff. He knows how many deputies he has. But we are not going to take on and run the shelter. We don’t have enough hours in the day,” she added.   And then there’s the problem of security classification. Only minimum security prisoners could be used for such work, and she said the Monroe County Correctional Facility houses a rougher mix. Some of the shelters operating at prisons are in rural counties that don’t have the types of violent criminals Monroe County has.

There is a lot more information on this idea at the Pocono Record.

The Monroe County Commissioners agreed Wednesday to award a new inmate phone system contract … including a new capability to pick out key words from recorded conversations. That feature will make life easier for detectives at the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office who routinely review inmate recordings. It’s legal and admissible in court. When they make calls, inmates are warned their conversations will be recorded. Calls to attorneys about their criminal cases are exempt; inmates provide staff with a list of those numbers.

Currently detectives spend hours each month listening to calls recorded on software. But the new system is capable of picking out key words, such as references to drug use or possible threats of physical harm.  “It will search any kind of street name for drugs,” MCCF Sgt. Will Searfoss said during a Monroe County Prison Board meeting earlier this month. “It learns the dialect of the prisoner.”

… The recording systems — the current one and the approved upgrade — don’t cost taxpayers anything. It is paid for from inmate funds posted to cover phone calls and other items they purchase at the Snydersville jail.