McKean County officials are looking at establishing a separate
dormitory for work release inmates at the Old County Home, as part
of an effort to lower overcrowding at the prison and be in
compliance with the state.
Officials also announced the prison received significantly
higher marks from the state Department of Corrections during an
inspection last March; the facility was ranked the worst in the
state in 2005 by the agency.
Word of the proposed dormitory came Thursday during a meeting of
the McKean County Prison Board, during which Warden Tim Woodruff
presented a year-end report for 2006 on the prison’s
operations.
“The most important issue we’d like to deal with (this year) is
overcrowding,” Commissioner John Egbert, also a prison board
member, said. “If we are successful in making some renovations to
the planning building and building a dormitory there, it would seem
to put us in a position to turn the prison from a dramatically
overcrowded place to one that meets the requirements of the
state.
“That’s the only issue the state really has with us at this
point.”
Among the other notable items contained in the report include:
the possible creation of a Criminal Justice Advisory Board; making
an isolation area for female inmates with contagious diseases or
mental health problems; there were no incidents in which
correctional officers used force on inmates last year – a drop from
12 reports issued in 2005; and the development of a “good time”
policy, under which inmates can earn time off their sentence for
good behavior.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Era, also
discusses staffing changes – the prison experienced some employee
turnover due to a change in culture and philosophy; inmate health
care and programs; and changes in the physical plant, including
refurbishing the cells and hallways.
“The major part of being a warden entails looking at statistics
and trends and see what the future will hold for corrections,”
Woodruff said. “You can’t wait until the problem exists. You have
to avoid it before then.”
One of the ways the county is looking ahead is the establishment
of the dormitory – which officials believe could significantly help
improve the overall rating of the prison in the future.
“We have tried to deal with overcrowding through various
avenues,” Woodruff said, including a pending intermediate
punishment program, which will give prison officials alternatives
such as house arrests and electronic monitoring of prisoners.
According to statistics provided in the report, the average
inmate population for the year was 80, of which an average of 20
inmates are in a work release unit with 10 approved beds. Woodruff
said if the board considers alternative housing for those
individuals, the average population last year would have been 60 –
under the state-approved 69 bed capacity for the prison.
“Overcrowding is an epidemic in both rural and urban areas,”
Woodruff said. “New construction isn’t the only answer. I think
it’s more a philosophical problem with the system. It seems anytime
a prison expands, it doesn’t take long before it fills. The ironic
part is despite the overall crime rate going down, prison inmate
rates are going up.”
Egbert said the proposed dormitory would be developed on the
second floor of the Old County Home located along U.S. Route 6 and
a short distance from the prison. The building currently houses the
county’s planning, conservation, recycling and economic development
departments on the first floor.
“The building still needs work,” Egbert said. “It’s more than
just cosmetic.”
While there was no price tag immediately available for how much
the renovations would cost, Egbert said there would be a separate
entrance for the inmates installed, along with showers and other
amenities.
Egbert said a prison employee would be stationed in the dorm
overnight and would also be present to check the inmates out in the
morning and back in at night. “These are people that go out in the
community anyway. Once the prison worker checks them (inmates) out
for the day, they can go back to the prison and then be back there
(dorm) again at night. There has to be at least one correctional
officer there at night in the case of an emergency.”
Officials hope to begin the renovations in the spring.
Meanwhile, the only other deficiency the state discovered during
its inspection was limited housing options for the inmates and the
inability to house them according to their security classification
and special needs, such as high security, separation and mental
illness, among others.
According to the report, the addition of a women’s unit would
include two true isolation cells and an isolation shower.
“We don’t have the ability, due to a design flaw (in the
prison), to isolate a female that might have a contagious disease
or something,” Woodruff said. “There’s no way of getting them out
of the general population.”
Woodruff said officials are also looking at the good time
program as a way to reduce the population. Since the inception of
the program, 13 inmates have been paroled early for a total savings
of 205 “bed days.”
“If every inmate in here gets out 10 days earlier (due to good
behavior), that would reduce the population by several inmates,”
Woodruff said.
Inmates with mandatory sentences don’t qualify for the program,
according to Woodruff.
