Schuylkill County Commissioners recently OK’d an agreement to renew temporarily housing inmates in Northumberland County.
The County currently has similar deals in place with Centre and Clinton counties and regularly houses inmates there to alleviate overcrowding at the lock-up in Pottsville.
To house an inmate temporarily in Northumberland County, it’ll cost Schuylkill County $72 per day. For those other counties, it’s $75 per day. Schuylkill County must also pay wages to transport inmates to those other facilities.
There is an addition $5 per day fee for any inmate that requires disciplinary segregation.
This deal will be in place until Dec. 31, 2026, and can be extended annually for another three years.
The expense of temporarily housing inmates in other counties has led to discussions in the past to construct a pre-release prison somewhere in Schuylkill County. However, those discussions, which have gone on for 20 years or more, never resulted in the construction of such a facility.
Cost was always the main factor in not building a pre-release prison and continues to be the major concern. In the last 18 months, there have been no public discussions of a pre-release prison even though it was an idea that every Republican candidate running for Commissioner in the 2023 election cycle supported.
In 2024, according to Schuylkill County Prison Board records, the County spent about $1.037 million on temporarily housing inmates elsewhere. That figure does not include the staffing costs to drive prisoners to those other facilities.
While that sounds like a lot, it’s not that much more than what it costs to operate Schuylkill County Prison on any given month. For instance, in June 2024, the Prison reported total expenses of $733,959.
While it may not be the same amount to operate a pre-release prison, no County official has ever presented an argument showing it’s financially feasible to operate such a facility versus temporarily housing inmates elsewhere.
After approving the deal to renew temporary housing in Northumberland County, Commissioner Boots Hetherington applauded the work of Chairman Larry Padora for spearheading the deal. Hetherington said this was part of a proposed deal where the two counties will share 9-1-1 operations in the future.
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