Schuylkill County could give company more time for intermediate punishment center site option analysis

Amy Marchiano, Republican & Herald, Pottsville, Pa.
·2 min read

POTTSVILLE — The Schuylkill County commissioners could decide to give more time to a Mechanicsburg-based company to produce a site option analysis for a possible intermediate punishment center, also known as a prerelease center.

At Wednesday’s work session meeting, Lisa Mahall, county engineer, talked about giving Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates until July 31 to provide an update on the facility, which would house nonviolent offenders and those with drug, alcohol and mental health issues.

In May 2023, the commissioners approved paying $28,800 to examine the need for such a building, options and a cost comparison.

That contract expired Sept. 30. In November, the commissioners approved an extension until March 29.

Controller Sharyn Yackenchick said after the meeting Wednesday that $2,880 of the approved amount had not been used. If more funds are needed, the commissioners would have to approve it, she said.

“It’s not going to be cheap,” Commissioner Barron L. “Boots” Hetherington said of a prerelease center.

Commissioners Chairman Larry Padora, who was not a commissioner when the contract was approved last year, said the issue would be on the agenda for action at the May 8 regular meeting.

“We don’t have an exact location (for a center),” he said.

County Administrator Gary R. Bender said in November that the focus had been on what to do with the former Schuylkill Transportation System building. The county moved STS into a new building but still owns the former facility in the Saint Clair Industrial Park.

The idea of a pre-release center has been talked about for years, as overcrowding issues at Schuylkill County Prison, which is licensed for 277 inmates, has prompted officials to pay other counties to house prisoners.

Commissioner Gary J. Hess had estimated previously that “well over $10 million” had been spent on the overcrowding problem since 2016.

Hess said after the meeting Wednesday that the report wasn’t finished and more time was needed.

“We want to make sure we have all the facts and figures,” he said.

Studies had been completed in 2008 and again in 2018 by the Mechanicsburg-based firm, but no action was taken.

An ad hoc committee involving county President Judge Jacqueline L. Russell, prison Warden David J. Wapinsky, the commissioners and others meets about the topic.

Padora said that the committee is trying to arrange a meeting with the firm to discuss the issue again.