New state-of-the-art county prison to open

Housing women will save nearly $300K

By TOM KANE

INDIAN ORCHARD, PA - It’s spanking new and glistens in the daylight. But life in the new county prison, called the Wayne County Correctional Facility, isn’t supposed to be nice, according to Craig Chalmers. “These are people who broke the law, so they’re not supposed to be pampered.”

Still and all, it has an institutional cachet about it that seems pleasant to anyone who is just visiting.

Chalmers and Vicky Lamberton, the county chief clerk who guided the construction, showed the new $16 million facility to the local press on May 15, followed by an open house for the public on May 16 and 17.

It is not clear when the facility will be ready to accept customers.

“There are still some things that have to be finished,” Lamberton said. “It will happen very soon.”

Besides being state of the art, the prison, which will house women and men prisoners, will save the county between $200,000 and $300,000 each year. Currently, the county pays about $400,000 to house women inmates outside the county.

It costs $65 a day to house women prisoners outside the county. It will cost around $9 a day to house them in the new prison, Chalmers said.

The 186-bed facility, which was designed by Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates of Harrisburg, PA, will have a complement of 60 full-time and part-time employees, made up of corrections officers, administrative staff, nurses, food-service employees and maintenance staff. The old prison has a 58-bed capacity.

A section of the building will house work-release prisoners, who will be held in a minimum-security area. These prisoners go out into the community and work on various community help projects, and they return to the facility after work for the evening.

The building, which is located near the intersection of Routes 6 and 652 in Texas Township, contains several separate units of maximum security and minimum security. The prisoners remain in those areas for food and recreation, leaving only if they have an appointment at the court. Electronic conferencing for many court appearances and access to the county law library will occur without the prisoners leaving the building.

“There’s very little movement of prisoners in the facility, which makes for an excellent state of security,” Chalmers said. “Everything in the facility is run by electronic controls, which are located at the control center. It is quite impossible for prisoners to escape. They would have no place to go.”

The construction is being paid for through a bond issue with a grant of $1 million from the state.