Health-care company lowers costs for new jail

Ten to 12 part-timers will be hired for the jail.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- The company hired last year to administer health-care services at the new county jail is saving substantial money, the Mercer County Prison Board has learned.
Warden Jeff Gill said Monday that the cost for prescription drugs and outside medical care for inmates is running about $44,000 this year with Southern Health Partners, a Chattanooga, Tenn., company, compared with $230,000 for the same time period last year.
Gill noted that last year many inmates were housed in other county jails and, as a result, their medical costs could not be controlled by the county.
Southern was hired on a $300,000 contract and promised to reduce the jail's annual medical costs, which were about $500,000 in 2005, as well as providing part-time nursing staff at the jail. He said that Southern is now also trying to obtain services of a psychiatrist to approve medications.
The board promoted four part-time correctional officers to full time. They are: Christopher Adams of Mercer, Kenneth Rodgers of Sharpsville, Brenda Pearce of Fredonia and Glenn Hedglin of Mercer. The promotions are effective this week and bring the number of full-time correction officers to 49; the jail is budgeted fpr 56.
Gill also reported that Careerlink job service in Sharon has finished testing for the next round of part-time correctional officers who will be hired. He said 10 or 12 have to be hired to replace part-timers who left to take full-time employment.
Advisory board
Riley Smoot, chief of Southwest Mercer County Regional Police, reported that a Criminal Justice Advisory Board must be resurrected to safeguard several millions of dollars in Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grants that are awarded to the county each year.
Smoot, president of the Mercer County Police Chiefs Association, said the PCCD wants the board to provide a local review of grant applications before they will be considered by the state. The county has such a board but it has been dormant. The prison board will take steps to reactivate it.
Gill asked the public for donations of new or used books to help provide a small library in each prisoner housing area at the jail.
For more information, call deputy warden Erna Craig at (724) 662-3800.