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| Martin eyes corrections center |
| By lancasteronline.com - P.J. REILLY |
| Published: 08/04/2011 |
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Lancaster County Prison is overcrowded and taxpayers can't afford to build a new one for $170 million, according to Scott Martin, chairman of the board of county commissioners. Lancaster County also is one of the largest contributors of inmates to the state prison system but does not have a facility to help transition those inmates back into the community. State officials would like to fix that. Martin plans to ask the county's Prison Board later this month for its support in exploring a joint project to provide a community corrections center here. The facility would house both state inmates finishing out their sentences and nonviolent prisoners at the county jail in a less-secure setting than a state or county prison. "I think this has the potential to save the county and the state money, while still meeting our obligations to deal with these offenders," Martin said. The Department of Corrections is eager to study the partnership. "We are interested in seeing how it would work," said Sue Bensinger, a department spokesperson. The county prison on East King Street is built to house 660 inmates, but regularly holds 1,200. "There's no question we've got to do something," Martin said. "The question is what?" A study in 2009 laid out several options for building a new prison at costs ranging from $111 to $170 million. The Prison Board did not like any of them. Also presented was a $25 million proposal for a 384-bed minimum security community corrections center. That's the route Martin said he preferred, until he began talking with officials at the state Department of Corrections and with representatives of MinSec Companies LLC of Delaware County. At Martin's urging, MinSec earlier this year dropped a proposal to build in Manheim Borough a transitional facility for state-prison inmates heading back into society. Martin learned then that the state is interested in establishing a community corrections center like that in Lancaster County. According to Bensinger, there are about 1,600 Lancaster County residents in state prisons. All but about 100 of them, who are serving life sentences or are on death row, eventually are scheduled to be released. It would be convenient, Bensinger said, to help those inmates readjust to society within their home county. Read More. |
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