Schuylkill prison continues to outsource inmates

Wear and tear continues at Schuylkill’s aged county prison, and personnel continue to wear roads transporting prisoners to and from the facility to ease overcrowding.

During a meeting Wednesday, Warden Eugene Berdanier reported on the current population numbers, which are 230 inmates in house, including 189 males and 41 females. The average population for June was 253 inmates, with 201 men and 52 women.

The total inmates currently outsourced in other facilities is 94, with the majority of those (57) held in Centre County Prison. Schuylkill County pays an average of $65 per day to house each inmate at another facility. After the meeting, Berdanier said the decision on which inmates will be housed at other prisons is based on sentence length; for example, the sentence must be for at least two months, he said.

Maintenance and repairs at the prison cost $10,642 in June, with the primary problem areas involving air units and door latches. Staff vacancies have been addressed, bringing the staff up to 145 full-time corrections officers. Cody Bettinger and Patricia Pancerella moved from part-time to full-time. Courtney Frye, Eric Macker and Joshua Fernandez were hired as part-time officers, leaving three part-time vacancies.

Berdanier provided additional statistics from June:

There were 60 inmates on watches, including 41 detox watches and 19 suicide/mental health watches.

There were three pregnant inmates in-house.

Thirteen inmates participated in the work-release program, six participated in the vocational rehab program and two inmates were utilized as utility workers. The vocational rehab program completed 16 jobs in 16 working days, which included 12 community service jobs, one county job and three for senior services.

Twenty offenders are on pre-release status.