Prison population and community service discussed at Fayette prison board
The rise of the prison population of Fayette County Prison inmates has caused the county prison board to again explore options on bringing it back down to comfortable levels.
During Wednesday’s regular meeting, Warden Brian Miller stated that the current population report at the prison included 201 men and 56 women, making the in-house population 257. There are two men and seven women lodged in the Greene County Prison and 22 men at the Indiana County Prison, bringing the total inmate count to 288.
At the same time last year, the inmate population was around 250, and in 2015, the number was under 230.
Board member Judge Steve Leskinen asked if there was some method for evaluating each inmate’s case to determine if they can be released.
Board member Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink said a few years ago, the adult probation office sent someone to prison to do that.
“I think it did trim some of the numbers down,” Miller said.
However, Zimmerlink said, the process was time consuming and took that officer away from duties at adult probation, so it didn’t continue.
Leskinen said he wants to start a process in his office to have a law clerk review prisoners that he committed to the prison to see if they can meet criteria to be released.
Miller said the both common pleas and magisterial district judges put people behind bars, the latter for unpaid or repeated summary offenses.
While Miller said he understand the frustration magistrates have with seeing the same person not pay fines or ignoring violations, he would like to see them come up with an alternative to prison.
“It does seem silly to lock someone up in our prison at a cost of $58 to $60 a day and relieve them from $40 for each day that they spend in prison for traffic fines, so it’s a net loss of $98 or $100 a day,” Leskinen said, adding on the other hand, sometimes taking away a person’s liberty is the only way to show that what they’re doing is wrong.
Board member Commissioner Dave Lohr suggested pushing community service over prison time.
Solicitor Jack Purcell said he believes there are some statutory provisions that allow magistrates to assign community service, but judges may be hesitant to do so because, unlike the county, there’s no probation office at that level to oversee it.
Zimmerlink said it’s an issue board members can bring up at the next regular meeting of the county’s magisterial district judges.
Board member Commissioner Vincent Vicites suggested the request may carry more weight if a fellow judge would also address those judges.
In other related business, Miller said the prison has three inmates that can be used for outside work with plans to start in the Fayette County Courthouse.
“I think we’ll start in the courthouse and get the ball rolling and see how it goes,” Miller said, adding that if it’s successful, he would like to add more inmates and expand out of the courthouse.
The commissioners liked the idea of eventually increasing the numbers of inmate participation.
“I’d like to see it expanded so they’re out working and giving back to society,” Lohr said.
“We have a lot of work, but we want to be cautious of what we’re doing,” Miller said. He added that new security cameras in the courthouse will ensure the inmates are going to be watched as they work.
Information about when and where those inmates will work will not be publicized because of potential contraband issues.
In other business concerning repairs, Miller said he’s looking into a replacing two kitchen ovens that recently malfunctioned, but said a wall may needed to be taken out to fit the ovens into the kitchen as it may be cheaper to remove a wall than purchase multiple smaller ovens to replace the two broken ones.
“I’m going to look into that this afternoon,” Miller said.