By Evamarie Socha
The Daily Item
LEWISBURG — Union County will renew an agreement to house prisoners with Centre County, a move spurred in part by a New Year’s Eve call from Northumberland County to come get its prisoners housed there because of crowding.
Under its intergovernmental housing agreement, Union County will pay Centre County $65 per day per inmate. It pays Northumberland about $60 a day.
“It’s having one more trick in the bag,” Commissioner John Showers said at Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting.
Commissioner Preston Boop, who also is chairman of the prison board, was clearly annoyed by what happened with the Northumberland County Prison. He learned of the situation Jan. 2 from Union County Warden Doug Shaffer.
“There’s no anger,” Boop said, “but there is some anxiety” of having to move prisoners on short notice. Northumberland County had an influx of inmates because of a drug bust that occurred several weeks before.
Full story: County prisons address inmate capacity levels