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Overcrowding pushes inmates out of Lycoming County; costs offset by housing federal inmates

After nearly two years of keeping the male inmate population low enough to avoid expensive transfers, the Lycoming County Prison had about four days in mid-June when 12 males were housed out-of-county, Chris Ebner, deputy warden of inmate services, told the prison board Friday morning.

A spike of sentencings that happened in that time period plus about 15 beds at the prison being taken up by federal inmates may have caused the transfer, said Ryan Barnes, deputy warden of operations and security.

“It was a number of things,” he said.

Financial records indicate the prison spent $3,374 to house female inmates at Clinton County Prison in May, and about $1,793 at Tioga County Prison in April. The average number of female inmates transferred was less than one for each month.

By contrast, the prison collected about $15,290 in the month of April for housing federal inmates, according to the expenditures and revenue report. The number of federal inmates held in the prison has averaged around 12 over the past few months and now is up to 15.

Though housing the federal inmates may have been part of why county inmates had to transfer, Barnes said the revenue makes it worthwhile.

“I can tell you, for the month of June, the revenue generated by the federal inmates far exceeds the cost of transferring the inmates,” he said.

In another matter, a four-week anger management class launched in the prison Thursday and more programming is coming to help inmates with their mental health, Ebner said.

Later this month, he hopes to provide informational sessions about health care for the inmates.

“The system for health can be daunting, so we’re going to try to give them some information,” he said.

Staff also are working on making the mental health snapshot report more and more detailed, to better be able to serve and track those with mental health problems, he said.

Commissioner Tony Mussare suggested adding the inmates’ age ranges, which President Judge Nancy L. Butts agreed would make programming easier.

Another data set to look for is the correlation between drug addiction and mental health, suggested Matt McDermott, chief of administration for the county.

Commissioner Rick Mirabito added that perhaps another chart could be created to help keep track of inmates who might move from one roster to another throughout treatment programs.

The rosters, labeled A, B, C and D, denote an inmate’s mental health status. Roster A shows no mental health history; B, past history but no active symptoms within the past year; C, current or history of psychotropic medications, outpatient counseling, psychiatric hospitalizations, self-harm or suicide attempts; and D, serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, involuntary psychiatric commitments, or recent or multiple suicide attempts.

Just over half of the prison and Pre-Release Center’s combined population falls on roster A; 46 inmates, or 11 percent of the population, are on B; 105, or 26 percent, are on roster C; and 13, or 3 percent, are on D, according to the snapshot.

The report breaks the data down further, noting 24 percent of inmates at the Pre-Release Center are on psychotropic medications, as are 19 percent of inmates at the prison, combining to show a total of 21 percent of the prison population is on medications.

The next board meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 10 in the court house.

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