The Lycoming County prison. SUN-GAZETTE PHOTO

Warden Brad A. Shoemaker revealed that the Lycoming County Prison is still in need of corrections officers and is currently more than ten officers down in staffing. Shoemaker shared the information during his monthly report at April’s Prison Board meeting recently.

Shoemaker said that they have been making efforts to increase the staffing and have been working with Human Resources to “get creative.”

“I know that the county has been having issues with the service that we use to advertise…it’s where we’ve been struggling is not being able to advertise as much and most of the applicant pool today is being brought to us by those search engines,” Shoemaker said.

“So hopefully that gets better, but right now we are getting some applications,” he added.

Shoemaker also acknowledged that the prison is “struggling with getting people to arrive for interviews.”

This comes at a time when the average daily population of males and females at the prison is increasing, with the peak population for March running at 305. Last year’s peak for March was 228 inmates. The average daily population has been right around three hundred, if not a little bit over, since January with 279 inmates in January; 297.71 in February; and 296.23 in March. Those figures include inmates at both the prison and the Pre-Release Center.

“That’s pretty consistent with where we were in February. We continue to expect to see those numbers either stay that way or continue to rise as the courts continue to review cases and have cases heard,” Shoemaker said.

According to information from the prison, the capacity for males at the prison is 222 and for females, 34. At the Pre-Release Center the capacity is 105 for males and 32 for females with a total capacity across the prison system at 393.

The mental health snapshot taken at the prison for both male and female inmates on April 7, revealed a total of 320 inmates with 119 of those on Roster A, which is with no mental history. Under Roster B, there were 67 inmates with a past mental health history but no active symptoms in the past year. Under Roster C, which includes inmates with a current mental health issue; a current of history of psychotropic medications, outpatient counseling, psychiatric hospitalizations; and self-harm/suicide attempts. There were 117 inmates under that roster. There were 17 inmates under Roster D which is classified as having serious mental illness such as involuntary psychiatric commitments, recent or multiple suicide attempts, a diagnosis of schizophrenia or actively psychotic during intake.

The next Prison Board meeting will be at 8:30 a.m. May 8, at the Commissioners’ Board Room, 3rd floor Third Street Plaza, 33 W. Third St.