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Proposal concerns German Twp. residents

By Jennifer Harr 4 min read

Several residents from German Township attended Monday’s Fayette County Prison Board meeting to express concern about a former personal care home being converted into an alternative housing facility. Nancy Burke, one of the residents who attended the meeting, said the commissioners were presented with a petition that contained more than 600 signatures of people opposed to the project.

Burke said no one was opposed to the concept of alternative housing, but said that the proposed area is not the right one in which to put that type of facility.

“We’re hoping you guys consider something else,” she said.

Representatives of Turnaround Inc., the group interested in running the alternative housing program, have been at the prison board meeting for the past several months. While they have expressed interest to the board, the decision to use alternative housing is ultimately in the hands of the county commissioners.

But a larger problem exists: the facility, the former May Day Personal Care Home, does not have the correct zoning. Edythe Maxine Shipley, who owns the building, asked the county zoning hearing board to grant her a special exception, but the board unanimously denied the request last year.

The matter is on appeal before Judge Ralph C. Warman, who has yet to render a decision.

Prison board member Judge John F. Wagner Jr. told Burke that it was not the board’s intention to influence the outcome of the zoning issue.

Burke said she was relieved to hear that.

The continued discussion on alternatives to imprisonment came as the county’s prison population was reduced to what Warden Larry Medlock called a “manageable” level.

Medlock said the prison held 221 inmates on Wednesday – and no prisoners had to be housed in neighboring prisons because of overcrowding. He said the population this month was 26 percent lower than it was in August 2005, and the population in the first eight months of this year was down 14 percent from 2005.

Medlock said he’s never seen the population go down this dramatically.

“Everything kicked in and it seems like it’s helping,” Medlock said.

He said the county has spent $45,607 so far this year housing inmates out of the county.

“That’s a dramatic reduction from previous years,” said board member Sheriff Gary D. Brownfield Sr.

Medlock said the population reduction is attributable to a variety of things, including the formation of the county’s criminal advisory board. The board, formed by President Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi, brings different branches of the court system together to work as a cohesive unit.

The monthly meetings have opened up communication between departments and made for more effective transportation of inmates, Brownfield said.

“The need for alternative housing should be and needs to be addressed – but there’s no pressure now” that the population has gone down, Brownfield said.

Board member Controller Mark Roberts agreed, but said it was “crazy to get in a cart-before-the-horse argument” when the zoning appeal still is pending.

He also suggested that it would be prudent to figure out what the judges want in terms of alternative housing so that a program could be suited to the court’s needs.

Wagner said that the population is only part of the reason that alternative housing is necessary. Treatment programs in the antiquated county lockup are non-existent, he said, referring to the prison as a “warehouse.”

“While they’re there (in county prison), we’re not working with them, so they don’t come back,” Wagner said. “Historically, we’ve never done rehabilitation work with prisoners” in the county.

Wagner said he has sentenced offenders who are doing state time quicker so that they could get into the system where such programs are offered.

Chief Adult Probation Officer Lou Lozar said that, at Medlock’s request, he looked at the number of parole violators in the county prison to see how many would qualify for some sort of alternative program. Of the estimated 27 violators, Lozar said that about six would be candidates.

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