Archive

Archive for the ‘PA Schuylkill County’ Category

Pre-Release Center To Go Ahead

March 24th, 2009
Comments Off

Coal Country SlightLast Wednesday’s announcement of the lowest Schuylkill County PA prison population in four years is “a blip” and will not change plans to build a $3 million to $5 million prerelease center in Ryan Township, county President Judge William Baldwin said.  Report from the Republican & Herald.

“I can’t imagine it will stay down on a long-term basis,” Baldwin said … “You can’t look at a temporary blip to make long-term plans.” The prerelease center, planned for a 4.6-acre site beside State Correctional Institution/Frackville, would hold nonviolent inmates and allow them to participate in work release programs. Motivation for the center has been the overcrowded county prison, which is designed for no more than 240 inmates.    While hitting highs of 360 inmates last year, the population has now fallen to 248, according to Warden Eugene Berdanier …

While the low inmate count is a welcome break, changing plans based on a few days or weeks of data is unwise, said county commissioners Chairwoman Mantura M. Gallagher.  “Look at where it (the population) was last year. We have no idea where it might be a year from now,” Gallagher said in a telephone interview Thursday morning.   Baldwin said Thursday he expected to see the prison population grow.  “Usually when the economy’s bad, crime increases,” he said.

As for the center, Gallagher said the project is “all about the money right now.” Price estimates depend on who’s giving them.    Gallagher and fellow Democrat Commissioner Francis V. McAndrew campaigned in 2007 on the idea of a prerelease center, but estimated a $3 million price tag. More recent estimates from Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, a Mechanicsburg prison consulting firm, put the price closer to $5 million.   Baldwin said more than $1 million in prisoner fines and fees has been set aside for the project. County officials are hopeful the rest will come from a low-interest U.S. Department of Agriculture loan.

Baldwin said he thinks additional money could come from another source.  “We’re essentially shovel-ready,” Baldwin said, adding the center could qualify for a piece of the $787 billion stimulus package, passed earlier this year.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, Overcrowding, PA Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, Prison and Jail Construction, Work Release

Schuylkill County Prison Weathers Economic Storm

February 10th, 2009
Comments Off

As other county, state and national programs face budget cuts — the product of a deepening national recession — pulling money from prison budgets isn’t an option in Schuylkill County PA, as reported in the Pottsville Republican-Herald.

“We can’t afford to let our prison not be able to accommodate the prisoners. For the sake of public safety, we have to keep the prison going,” county commissioners Chairwoman Mantura M. Gallagher said last week … Some, however, fear that hard economic times could spur a rise in crime and add to an overcrowded prison system.  “I am not hearing yet of a jail impact due to economic downturn, but it is likely to occur down the line as more people lose jobs and as preventative programs go away with budget cuts,” said Brinda Carroll Penyak, deputy director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

The Schuylkill County Prison will actually receive more taxpayer money in 2009 — $4,394,507, as opposed to $4,207,465 in 2008 — from the county budget than it did last year, according to county budget analyst Paul Straka.   “I don’t think it’s really having an effect on our prison yet,” county President Judge William Baldwin, also chairman of the county prison board, said in a telephone interview last week. “The reality is, we have one of the lowest costs-per-inmate of anywhere in the state. Everywhere else is higher — most are significantly higher.”   Baldwin said Schuylkill County spends about $39 per inmate, per day, as of 2007.

The county prison has consistently remained above its 240-inmate maximum for the past several years, necessitating extra budgeted money to cover the overrun.    Schuylkill’s prison population has decreased as the recession has worsened, shrinking from 310 inmates in October 2008 to 261 two weeks ago, according to prison Warden Eugene Berdanier.


vericatrajkova Economic Issues, PA Schuylkill County

New Process Tightens Prison Bail Policy

January 30th, 2009
Comments Off

A new rule has added a step for those seeking to be released on bail from Schuylkill County Prison, but also made it easier for them to stay free pending resolution of their case.

No one arrested in the county in a criminal case will be freed on bail until they have been fingerprinted and photographed, Sheriff Joseph G. Groody said in announcing a measure, which was approved by the county Prison Board. The move, he says, merely enforces the law.  “Every time you’re arrested in a criminal case, you have to be fingerprinted and photographed,” said Groody, a former Ashland police officer.

The policy, which already is in effect, should reduce the number of people being arrested for not having those done — which is a violation of their bail conditions. “We did have a problem with people just walking out of prison and going home without being fingerprinted,” said Roy J. Eiler, a former Pottsville police officer who runs the county Central Booking Office where fingerprinting and photographing are done. “They didn’t obey a condition of their bail. Failure to do so results in a warrant of arrest being issued for default in required appearance.” That, in turn, led to more arrests, and more avoidable criminal cases, Groody said. “It’s a big workload in the (magisterial district judges’) offices,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to alleviate. Its going to make a big saving in the magisterial district judges’ workloads.”

Eiler said the policy conforms to the state Crimes Code, which requires fingerprints to be taken after all arrests. Furthermore, magisterial district judges also order fingerprints as a condition of a defendant’s bail, he said. In spite of that, many defendants don’t comply with the requirement, Eiler said. “They try to evade it. It’s to their benefit to try to evade it,” he said.

vericatrajkova Bail, PA Schuylkill County

The State of Pennsylvania’s Prisons

November 4th, 2008
Comments Off

A steady rise in the number of inmates and the political risks of paroling prisoners early are complicating Pennsylvania’s efforts to ease crowded conditions in its prisons.

The 27 existing lockups now hold nearly 47,000 inmates, which is up from a population of just over 36,000 in 1998. The number of inmates is now 8 percent over the current capacity of 43,300. And the tide keeps on rising.  State Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard estimates that the overall prison population could top 57,000 by the end of 2012. Legislators’ desire to be “tough on crime” and the public’s fear of rising drug-related crimes have led to longer and more mandatory sentences.   Correctional costs, at $1.6 billion for 2008-09, are the third biggest item in the $28 billion state budget, after education and welfare costs.

Progress to ease the crowded cells is going slowly. The Department of Corrections wants to build three new state prisons, each costing $200 million and holding 2,000 inmates. But the first of the three new prisons won’t be open before mid- to late 2011.

The state Legislature has enacted a new law, one advocated by House Speaker Dennis O’Brien, R-Philadelphia. It’s aimed at making more nonviolent prisoners eligible for early release. They would have to complete programs to ease their transition back into society, such as anger management and overcoming drug use, before being paroled. By paroling more appropriate prisoners, officials believe they can moderate the rising tab for prison construction and operational costs, and thus ease the financial strain on state taxpayers.

But giving parole to the wrong inmate — one who later commits another crime — can spell political disaster … Gov. Ed Rendell, a former mayor of Philadelphia, found himself under pressure from police unions and citizens groups, and imposed a temporary moratorium on all parolees, nonviolent as well as violent. The moratorium was lifted last week for nonviolent prisoners, whom Mr. Rendell defines as prisoners “with no history of a violent offense.” The corrections department and the Board of Probation and Parole will decide if an inmate qualifies as nonviolent and thus can be let out of prison early …Mr. Rendell said, “The moratorium on paroles for all violent offenders remains in effect.”

As for the three new prisons …

[T]he first will go on the grounds of the existing SCI Rockview in Centre County … A ground-breaking is expected in 2009 and the project would take about two years to complete … A second new prison is to be built somewhere in Fayette County, which already has one. Corrections officials are now scouting several other sites in Fayette County for the second prison, with a decision expected by next spring. There are several counties where the third new prison could be built, including two sites in Schuylkill and one each in Northumberland, Huntingdon and Luzerne. Another possibility is on the grounds of Graterford state prison outside Philadelphia.

More details on this available in the article at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

vericatrajkova PA Fayette County, PA Luzerne County, PA Northumberland County, PA Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania

Daily Sweep 080428

April 28th, 2008
Comments Off
  • In Orlando FL, there are problems reported with the tracking of sex offenders; 100 are said to be “missing”.
  • The Schuylkill County PA Prison Board is “shocked” that overtime pay in the jail will probably double the budget estimate.
  • Kenya’s largest newspaper, The Nation, declares Kenyan prisons and the conditions of Kenyan prison officers “a national scandal“.

vericatrajkova Africa, FL Orlando, INTERNATIONAL, Kenya, PA Schuylkill County, Sex Offenders

Regional Jail Plan In PA Stumbling

March 31st, 2008
Comments Off

Northumberland County PA execs have a plan to solve the jail overcrowding crisis in their region.

Several weeks ago, Northumberland County Board of Commissioners Chairman Frank J. Sawicky sent letters to Schuylkill, Columbia, Montour, Union and Snyder counties proposing two regional facilities big enough to accommodate inmates from all six counties.  Sawicky, who said Northumberland County will need to build a new prison soon to combat overcrowding, estimated each prison will cost about $80 million. Construction would not be completed until 2018, should the plan move forward.  With prison costs escalating, we were looking at the feasibility of bringing counties together,” Sawicky said. “I’m not really sure this can be done, but it would save costs. Let’s let everybody have some thought on this.”

However, some key players are not on board.

“This is not anything that we are entertaining at all,” Schuylkill County commissioners Chairwoman Mantura M. Gallagher said Tuesday. “We look at our way as a whole lot more cost-effective.”   “Our way” is a pre-release center to hold nonviolent inmates, rather than building another full-blown prison … Bill Haas, Union County board of commissioners chairman, said the concept of the regional facility is “worth investigating with caution,” but added the 10 years of planning and construction — with changing commissioners in each county along the way — could easily trip up the plan.

There is a lot more detail in the Republican Herald

vericatrajkova Overcrowding, PA Columbia County, PA Montour County, PA Northumberland County, PA Schuylkill County, PA Snyder County, PA Union County, Pennsylvania