Franklin County judicial officials propose 'community corrections' center

CHAMBERSBURG - In what county commissioners considered a "surprise" presentation during the Franklin County Prison Board meeting Thursday, judicial officials shared an idea for what they called a "community corrections" facility that could relieve overcrowding and other pressures at the county jail. 

President Judge Carol Van Horn, Probation Chief Dan Hoover and Deputy Probation Chief Doug Wilburne gave a presentation on the type of facility they believe could greatly benefit the community.

The proposed center is based on a similar facility in Dauphin County, Hoover said. 

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The building would have three main uses: As a residential facility for inmates on work release, as transitional housing for inmates who can be released but lack a home plan, and as a space to keep individuals who have violated their probation. 

Creating a space separate from the jail for these things would open up needed space in that overcrowded facility. 

The proposed center would also have space for treatment programs and other services, and could expand on things now down at the Day Reporting Center, Hoover said. 

The county jail has been regularly over capacity since mid-2016. Though the jail was built in 2007 to deal with overcrowding seen through the early 2000s, and was supposed to handle needs for 20 years, the consistent overcrowding has required the county to move some inmates to jail in other counties, and has proven that the larger jail was not enough.  

As of November, the jail this year moved 10 inmates to other counties, six of them women, Warden Bill Bechtold said at the prison board meeting.

In her position, not only as a judge, but also as an official in programs like the county's treatment court, Van Horn said she has seen the effects of overcrowding and issues related to re-entry into the community. 

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All of the judges in Franklin County support the idea of the facility, she added. 

The ideal building would house 108 men and 60 women in the work-release program who would be given the opportunity to stay there by the judges and after a screening at Franklin County Jail.  There would also be around 30 "transitional" housing beds for inmates who would be free if they were able to put together a home plan.

The services would include career and employment development, vocational services, drug and alcohol programs, trauma-focused therapy groups and assessments that create effective supervision plans.

Other parts of the facility that would be needed but haven't been developed yet are laundry areas, kitchen facilities, showers and bathrooms, drug testing and strip search areas, classrooms and staff areas. Officials also have to look into things like the square footage and types of locations that would be suitable, construction costs, staffing, security and Prison Rape Elimination Act and American Correction Association compliance. They would want the facility to be as close to the jail as possible, so they could share resources when needed. 

The center would provide "a cheaper and more reformative approach to incarceration," Wilburne said during the presentation.

Wilburne referred to Dauphin County's center, which operates at the rate of $40 or $45 per day, per inmate.

If the proposed center were opened today in Franklin County, 110 inmates would qualify to stay in it, freeing up 110 beds at the jail and stopping the need for out-of-county transfers, Wilburne said.

Using Dauphin County's higher rate of $45 per day, that would be $1,806,750 per year to house those 110 inmates in the proposed building - about $1.09 million less than it would cost to keep them at the jail. 

It costs $72.17 to house one inmate one day at Franklin County Jail. For 110 inmates, that amounts to $2,897,625.50 for one year. 

County Commissioners Robert Thomas, Bob Ziobrowski and David Keller had many questions about the idea, but because it is still in such early stages, not many answers were available. Van Horn asked Thursday that the board support more work being put into the idea to flesh out what could become a formal proposal down the line.

Though Ziobrowski called the idea "innovative and exciting," he said he did not like that the board meeting was the first time commissioners were hearing about the project, to which Thomas and Keller agreed.

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Van Horn said she had no intention of keeping people in the dark, but wanted to make sure when they presented something it would be something of "substance."

Van Horn said the project would be done under the court's directive, and that the probation department, jail, county drug and alcohol programs and other concerned parties would all be part of it. 

During the meeting, the commissioners emphasized the idea would need considerable work before it was fully rolled out to the public.

Van Horn said she did not have any kind of timeline for how long a project like this would take, or when it would start, stating:

"We want to make sure we plan appropriately for success."

Becky Metrick, 717-262-4762