Clarion County Jail Warden Jeff Hornberger said the prison has a maximum capacity of 139 inmates and they have recently had an average of over 120 inmates.
“When they built this jail in 1995, it was built for 79 inmates and at that time, everything was single cell and since then we now have everything double bunked,” Hornberger stated.
Hornberger also mentioned since the corrections facility opened, he has noticed an inflation of about five inmates per year over the last five years.
In 2015 the average inmate population was 104.82 inmates. The actual number of inmates fluctuates every month but the averages have been increasing.
In 2011 there was an average of 74.75 inmates in the jail at any given time. That number increased slightly in 2012 with an average of 77.86 inmates.
A big jump came in 2013 when the average number of inmates climbed to 91.15 and another jump in 2014 to an average of 99.93 inmates.
Hornberger said the number can change. Depending on the number of inmates, they might be housed three to a cell.
“Last year we bought these sleds that are cots for the floor of a cell, and we have inmates sleeping on those sleds on the floor, three to a cell,” Hornberger said.
A solution was discussed in 2015 by the Clarion County Board of Commissioners and Hornberger – a bail supervision program.
Bail supervision is where an inmate, who is a low-level offender but has a history, may be given supervised bail. The inmate would be released from the jail but would have to report to a probation officer and submit to drug testing.
Hornberger said the program would pertain to between five to eight inmates per month which would allow some extra room in the prison.
The proposed program is working its way through the county judicial system. Details of the program were not released.
The issue of over population was brought up in January this year at a Clarion County Prison Board meeting.
One concern was the jail went just slightly over budget for 2015. The end of year total was at 100.02 percent.
Hornberger said the reason for going over budget came down to several factors, one being the prison’s budget had been cut the last two years.
Another reason was the cost of feeding the inmates at the jail.
In connection with the cost to feed an inmate, inmate population is increasing, thus more money must be spent to feed those inmates.
The original amount budgeted for food in 2015 was $155,000. The actual amount spent on food for 2015 was $170,828.
There were a total of 125,925 meals served at the jail in 2015; the cost of a meal was $1.35 per meal.