By Liz Zemba
Tribune-Review
GREENSBURG, Pa. — Fayette County’s jail warden wants to hire eight more full-time corrections officers to bring the total number to 50.
Brian Miller made the recommendation to the prison board on Wednesday. He said he based the request on an internal study prepared by Deputy Warden Barry Croftcheck and his own review of federal Department of Justice staffing figures.
Miller said if federal recommendations are followed, the jail should have 54.4 full-time corrections officers, but there are 44.
With the hiring of two full-time officers on Wednesday, 42 of the positions are filled, he said. Two others are authorized, but both are vacant because they were not funded for 2015.
Miller said if the two vacant positions are filled, the salary board would have to implement six more positions to bring the total number of full-time officers to 50 and part-time to 10. He said money is available to pay for the new hires because inmate-rental fees to house excess inmates in neighboring jails are down for the year.
The county started 2015 with $681,700 available for inmate-rental fees, according to Jeanine Wrona, acting controller. So far this year, it has spent $128,185, leaving an available balance of $553,515.
In 2014, the county spent $866,332 on rental fees. Fayette pays to house inmates in other county jails to alleviate overcrowding, pending a decision on whether to proceed with construction of a jail or an addition to the jail behind the courthouse in Uniontown.
Miller said fewer inmates have been housed in rented cells this year because of alternative-sentencing programs that include a day reporting center and special courts for veterans and people with mental health issues.
He credited Genesis House Ministries, a program that offers job-placement services and substance-abuse programs to former inmates, with helping to alleviate overcrowding, as well.
In his written report to the board, Croftcheck said the jail has paid $150,000 in overtime to full-time officers as of June 5. Although the board hired 18 part-time officers in the past several years, few are available when needed, according to Croftcheck’s analysis.
He said part-time officers were called 1,282 times between Jan. 1 and May 30, but only 117 calls resulted in the part-time person accepting a shift. Most of the calls — 1,032 — went unanswered, he said in the report.
When part-time officers turn down work, full-time officers are forced into overtime that can result in 16-hour shifts, Croftcheck wrote. The longer hours contribute to officer fatigue, causing potentially unsafe conditions and low morale.
The board took no immediate action on Miller’s request, pending the convening of a salary board to consider the implementation of six new full-time positions.
In an unrelated matter, the board approved a policy change drafted by Kate Vozar, manager of the county’s Problem-Solving Courts, that will allow qualified personnel other than a psychiatrist to evaluate inmates on suicide watch for possible removal from such watches.
The change adds licensed mental health providers or certified nurse practitioners to the list of professionals who can evaluate inmates for possible removal from suicide watches. Vozar said it will free up more time for a psychiatrist who visits the jail once weekly to assess other inmates in need of mental-health care.