By Keith Gushard
The Meadville Tribune
SAEGERTOWN, Pa. — Whether Crawford County Prison Board should raise daily wages for inmate workers at the county jail has been tabled for action until January because of a lack of all board members present.
At Thursday’s meeting of the prison board at the jail in Saegertown, Kenneth Saulsbery, the jail’s deputy warden, proposed the board consider a change in wage rates for inmates who work at the jail while they are incarcerated.
Inmate workers get a flat $20 per day wage for performing work at the jail such as cleaning, but Saulsbery proposed doubling the rate to $40 per day. Inmates who are on the jail’s work release/community service program through Adult Probation Office and work in the community to pay off fines and court costs make $7.25 per hour or $58 per day, Saulsbery said.
“We’re trying to make it a little bit more fair that they can work off their fines and costs,” Saulsbery said. “It would possibly give us a chance to get better inmate workers and more inmate workers.”
The wage rate for inmate workers within the jail is set by the prison board, but prison authorities didn’t know the last time the wage rate was changed.
The board voted to table the matter to January since only four of the seven prison board members were present. District Attorney Francis Schultz, Treasurer Christine Krzysiak and County Commissioners Francis Weiderspahn Jr. and C. Sherman Allen were at the meeting. Sheriff Nick Hoke, County Commissioner Jack Lynch and Judge John Spataro were absent.
Copyright 2015 The Meadville Tribune