The inmate population at Westmoreland County Prison has swelled to its highest numbers this decade, prompting officials to watch for signs of overcrowding.
Meanwhile, local leaders said they want to increase the number of teens housed next door at the county’s juvenile detention center in Hempfield.
The jail on Monday reported 609 inmates at the facility, with another 99 men and women assigned to the lockup but staying temporarily at other institutions for medical care or court hearings in other counties. The jail ended the week with 708 inmates, just a dozen shy of capacity.
“I don’t think we’re in danger of reaching capacity, but it’s something we have to watch,” Warden Steve Pelesky said Monday after a meeting of the county prison board. “We have other facilities that we work with if we need to, but the trends are that population usually goes up in the winter and down in the summer. I’m hoping we’re still on that trend.”
County officials in the past have explored expansion of the jail and installation of portable housing units on the property to accommodate a growing inmate population. Neither option is on the table now, Pelesky said.
The number of inmates housed at the Westmoreland jail has been on the rise in recent months. Pelesky said Monday’s inmate count was the highest since before the pandemic.
In March, the lockup averaged 695 inmates, a more than 11% increase from a year earlier. There were 28 new inmates who entered the jail last month than were released. A year earlier, that number was nearly even. More inmates are entering the facility than in past years, Pelesky said.
About 50 inmates were transferred to the state prison system during the first four months of the year, with more expected to be sent there in the coming days, the warden said.
While officials are hoping to see inmate population decline at the jail, plans are progressing to increase the number of juvenile offenders housed at the Regional Youth Services Center.
The county’s juvenile detention program is licensed to house as many as 16 teens, but, since the facility’s reopening last year, it has limited its population to a maximum of eight. On Monday, seven teens were being housed there, director Rich Gordon said.
A nearly $1 million renovation project to install new doors and locking devices is underway and expected to be completed this summer, paving the way for the county to implement an expansion. The facility has operated with the original doors and locks that were installed when the center was built in 1979.
“A couple of weeks after the doors are in, we can expand,” Gordon said. “We’re moving forward with those plans.”
Staff has been hired to accommodate a larger number juvenile detainees. The facility has 12 full-time staffers, three part-timers and nine temporary employees.
“Ideally, we are right where we need to be,” he said. “But more is better. As of right now, we are at our hiring limit.”
The additional bed space could be occupied by juveniles from neighboring counties. Deals must be negotiated, but officials believe the per diems collected from other counties will offset operational costs and could even make a profit from the facility.