Prison board urged to keep population down
Fayette County Commissioner Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink urged county prison board members to study the pros and cons of different alternative sentencing programs so that the board can continue making progress at keeping the population of the prison down. Zimmerlink suggested during Wednesday’s meeting that board members come to a consensus before the August commissioners’ meeting so that they can issue a recommendation on alternative housing to the commissioners.
Zimmerlink said there are three ways in which the board can take action: by building a new jail, looking at alternative sentencing and continuing with the measures the county currently has in place.
“Choose one of the three, or do nothing and watch the cost escalate,” Zimmerlink said.
Continuing to discuss overcrowding but not taking action “is a waste of time,” Zimmerlink said.
Her suggestions came when she asked board members to comment on what they thought of a prison overcrowding study done by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. Zimmerlink and board chairman Sheriff Gary D. Brownfield agreed that the study was too general, not mentioning specific things about Fayette County.
But the report does make some points, suggesting sentencing alternatives like community service to reduce overcrowding.
Despite discussions about quelling overcrowding, prison Warden Larry Medlock said that the population of the prison is down from one year ago.
Medlock said 219 inmates are being housed in the county lockup, and two are being housed in the neighboring Greene County Jail.
Between July 2005 and this month, Medlock said the population was down 24 percent. He thanked the courts for instituting alternative sentencing programs and sheriff’s office for promptly transporting inmates from the county prison.
Both have helped keep the population low, Medlock said.
He said a county criminal advisory committee spearheaded by President Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi has brought together different members of the court process and law enforcement. The meetings focus on making certain that all of the different facets of the court process run as efficiently as possible.
“It’s helped greatly with our population,” Medlock said.
Prison board members also heard from representatives of Turnaround Inc.
The corporation wants to convert a personal care home owned by Edythe Maxine Shipley into a halfway house.
The proposed halfway house is to be located at the former May Day Personal Care Home in German Township. In July 2005, members of the zoning hearing board denied Shipley’s request to convert the Sunshine Hollow Road care home into a home for inmates.
Shipley is currently appealing a decision that denied her request to re-zone the property so that it could be used as a halfway house.
She indicated during the meeting that the appeal was filed in December 2005.
Before the prison board can make any sort of recommendation that the commissioners explore using a halfway house as a prison alternative, Zimmerlink noted that Judge Ralph C. Warman has to make his decision.