|
|
| County to Take in Female Inmates |
| By The Centre Daily Times |
| Published: 11/14/2005 |
|
Pennsylvania commissioners agreed last week to house 20 to 25 female inmates from Berks County as a way to offset costs of operating the new Centre County Correctional Facility. Berks County will pay Centre County $55 a day for each inmate, which could generate $300,000 to $400,000 in revenue. The money would go into the county prison's operating budget. The proposed 2006 operating budget for the prison, which opened in July, is running about $4.8 million, about $800,000 higher than the cost of operating the old county prison, said commissioners Chairman Chris Exarchos. Exarchos said that he believes the figure reflects the "startup costs" of the new facility and might be brought into line in the coming years. In the meantime, housing out-of-county inmates will help offset the expense to taxpayers of the new prison. "It won't be considered net profit, because there will be some expense for housing and feeding them," Exarchos said.”But it goes to offset the overhead of the prison." Exarchos said the savings occur when the pods, or sections of cell blocks that house inmates, are full. It costs just as much, he said, to open a pod for 18 inmates (the number of females currently housed at the prison) as it does for 40. With each additional inmate, the net cost decreases. The county's cost for housing its inmates is now about $60 a day. The $55 per inmate per day that Berks County will pay will cover only meals, shelter and other minor services, such as laundry. Berks will be responsible for all other costs, including medical care and transportation to and from the facility. The per-inmate amount Berks County will pay is about $7 more a day than Centre County paid to house its inmates in the Clinton County prison, before Centre County's prison was built. Centre County retains the right to refuse any inmate and can send the inmates back to Berks if Centre County needs the space for its own inmates. Exarchos said the county is not hanging a "this space for rent" sign outside the prison. Contacts are being initiated by other counties, he said, and Centre County is not making phone calls seeking inmates. Warden Martin Kovacs said he had been contacted by Berks County's warden to see if the county was willing to provide space for inmates. Currently, the population of the Centre County Correctional Facility is running about 190 to 200 inmates per day. It can hold a total of 308. The last of Centre County's inmates, the female prisoners, were moved from Clinton County's prison into the Centre County facility about three weeks ago. |
advertise
|
privacy policy
|
add URL
|
about us
|
terms/disclaimer
|
contact us
|
join our team
|
help
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think