SHIPPENVILLE, Pa. (EYT) — The Clarion County Jail has Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with four other western Pennsylvania jails that would allow Clarion County to place prisoners in their general populations in case of overcrowding or an emergency at Clarion County Jail.
The MOUs with Armstrong, Jefferson, Indiana, and Venango Counties are required by the state, according to Clarion County Jail Warden Jeff Hornberger. Indiana County was the last agreement finalized in the previous two months by the two sets of county commissioners.
“If we have too many prisoners here, it would be somebody who could take our overflow,” said Hornberger. “The state requires us to have MOUs with other counties in case we have an emergency or national disaster. They want to see a plan in place where we could house our prisoners elsewhere if needed.”
Although the number of inmates has grown at Clarion since the facility opened in 1995, Hornberger does not feel the population would exceed the official capacity of 139. The average prison population last year was 108.
“Our population is down,” continued Hornberger, “but, if we I ever had an emergency, it would provide a safety net. The wind blows and takes half of the roof off or anything major that would happen, and we have to get people out. Hopefully, it would never come to where we would have to do that where we have too many inmates, but we needed to have a plan in place with other counties as well.”
Counties have different charges per day for accepting prisoners. The MOU between Clarion and Indiana calls for a $55.00 per day rate for Indiana. It cost Clarion an average of $64.40 per day to house an inmate in 2017.
“The average across the state was $78.40. We’re a little lower than the average, and that’s because we’re a smaller county, and we don’t have all of the resources some of the bigger places have.”
Indiana was possible reaching out to Clarion County because they have a lot of beds right now and looking to fill some of those beds.
“Looking ahead, I don’t see us sending anybody over there. We would want to look at some of our closest jails first because of travel expense.”
Growth in Jail Population
The average population for Clarion in the first full operation after opening in 1995 was 42 inmates.
Growth came starting in 2011 with an average of 74 prisoners, followed by 77 in 2012, 91 in 2013, 99 in 2014, 104 in 2015, 113 in 2016, and 108 in 2017.
“We’ve been increasing our population, and this last year was the only year we dropped,” Hornberger said. “I attribute that to the success of programs that everybody else is running, not just the jail. There’s no particular type of offense that is down or anything. The courts want to see more alternative measures instead of just incarceration. It may be working in Clarion County. I can’t pinpoint it, but I know we have some alternative programs.”
Many of the people serving time in Clarion County Jail are there because of drug or alcohol-related crimes. The spike in the number of inmates starting in 2013 is also likely because of drug offenses and the growth of meth and heroin use. The number of female prisoners also increased during the same period.
Noting that the population stays steady at 100, Hornberger is never sure what the future holds, but he does think that more crimes occur in better weather.
“Our population goes up and down. When it comes summertime and people are out being more mischievous and maybe out more hours of the night, I think we see a peak. People are out having campfires, parties, and whatever you will see that graph go up and down. I think once the warmer weather comes, we could be coming back up.”
Although the population has increased over the years, one thing remains the same. The same number of staff still operates the Clarion County Prison since its opening in 1995.
