By Rich Cholodofsky
Tribune-Review
GREENSBURG, Pa. — The growing number of female inmates at Westmoreland County Prison might force the county to rent space in neighboring jails, officials said Monday.
But commissioners said they favor diverting more defendants to the day reporting center in Greensburg to avoid housing inmates in other counties.
The jail housed an average 660 inmates last month, edging closer to its capacity of 704. The women’s wing has cell space available for 98 inmates.
Warden John Walton said 117 women were in the lockup on Monday, requiring 15 to sleep on cots and four to be transferred to the medical unit.
“We’re going to have to decide soon to rent some space at other institutions because we have no other place to put them,” Walton told the county’s prison board.
Overcrowding of women inmates has been an issue at the jail since summer, but state regulations limiting the 30-day time that overflow inmates can be housed on cots has not been violated, the warden said.
Officials previously rejected suggestions that alternate accommodations are needed for the growing number of women in the jail. Walton said he hasn’t investigated the cost of renting jail space elsewhere.
The county commissioners, who serve on the prison board, said they want to see if diversionary programs can be used to thin out the population.
“I want to exhaust every option before we look outside the county,” Commissioner Ted Kopas said.
County probation officials suggested that not enough inmates are being sent out of the facility to drug rehabilitation and treatment facilities or assigned to the day reporting center. which provides treatment, counseling and other supervision programs.
More than half of all new inmates require detoxification services for drug addiction, Walton said.
The day reporting center has the capacity for 100 participants. Only 57 defendants were enrolled in program on Monday, according Gary Miscovich, a supervisor in the county’s adult probation department, which oversees the center.
The day reporting program was created in 2011 with the expectation it would serve up to 200 clients, many of whom would be diverted there from the jail. Several months after the program was launched, it was temporarily closed when police arrested two dozen participants and charged them with drug offenses at the facility.
When the center reopened in 2012, the number of participants was limited to 100.
Commissioners said Monday they want to meet with representatives from Southwest Pennsylvania Human Services, which operates the day reporting center for the county, to determine how more inmates can be diverted to the program.
“We’re going to do everything internally we can. If we get to the point where we’re no longer in compliance (with state safety standards for inmates), then we’ll look at it,” Commissioner Gina Cerilli said.