Jan 9, 2003 By Steve Ostrosky 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – The Greene County Prison has room for inmates from counties experiencing overcrowding, the warden told the prison board Wednesday. Warden Harry Gillispie said he recently sent a letter to prison wardens in Pennsylvania’s 66 other counties, informing them of the availability of beds at the Greene County Prison, which has a 116-inmate capacity.

To date, Gillispie said, he has received inquiries from Lancaster and Philadelphia counties, and the prison still has three inmates from Butler County, down from as many as 20 last month. He said many of his questions are in regard to female inmates, as many counties have a hard time housing them in their prisons.

Gillispie said he will take only inmates with two-year sentences or less or those with two years or less left on a sentence. Inmates convicted of DUI, theft, burglary or who have violated terms of their probation are typically the only ones Gillispie will allow to stay in Greene County.

“I can pick and choose,” he said. “We only take a certain clientele.”

Since the prison underwent an expansion two years ago, inmates from Fayette and Erie counties have been housed there periodically. Greene County charged outside counties $45 per inmate per day to house their inmates in the county jail and used that money to cover much of the expansion project’s cost.

Gillispie said that next month, he will provide a complete report to the board about how much other counties paid Greene County to house their inmates. He said Butler County owes $6,000 for their inmates that were housed at the prison in December.

In other business, Sheriff Richard Ketchem was re-elected board chairman when the board reorganized for the year. The board elected Judge William Nalitz as vice chairman and county Controller John Stets as secretary. The board will meet in the commissioners’ meeting room after the commissioners’ second agenda meeting of the month and once every three months at the prison.

The county commissioners will reorganize during their regular meeting this morning. In addition, they are expected to name members to the tourism board and appoint two members to the Human Services Advisory Board.

Also at today’s meeting, the commissioners will set the meeting dates and times for the salary, retirement, election, assessment and sinking fund boards.