CLEARFIELD – A significant increase in criminal cases coming through Clearfield County Court was discussed during the prison board meeting on Tuesday.
The number of cases has increased 52 percent since 2014, according to information released by President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman. During that year, there were 923 criminal cases and in 2020 that number rose to 1,408.
As of Sept. 13, there are 908 cases already in 2021.“We have been absolutely inundated with criminal cases,” Ammerman noted.
District Attorney Ryan Sayers stated that the number of cases in the last sessions of criminal call have averaged between 225 and 270.
Currently there are so many trials scheduled that juries are being picked for trials as far out as April and May of next year.
Right now, there are 43 trials scheduled for 93 days, said F. Cortez “Chip” Bell III, court administrator.
Because there was only one case scheduled for the last civil jury selection, they also picked criminal juries and a special extra session of criminal jury selection has been added for Nov. 16.
“We have never done a special criminal jury selection,” Ammerman said, adding that they need to catch up so that the trials aren’t being scheduled six months ahead, especially for incarcerated people.
Ammerman has asked area senior judges to cover some of the trials in the next few months. These extra trials will be held at the former Knights of Columbus building, now known as Copper Cork Event Center on Arnold Avenue.
This back-up of criminal cases is also impacting civil cases as they compete for open dates on the court calendar.
Judge Paul Cherry, who was present at the meeting, noted that he has cleared two weeks per month off his schedule for potential trial dates.
Ammerman said he wants the county to get caught up so they can go back to picking juries only a month or two prior to the trial dates.
“This has nothing to do with the pandemic,” Ammerman noted, because Clearfield County did not shut down as long as others in the area, which did no trials for as long as 18 months.
Sayers noted that these cases are not routine driving under the influence charges with one day trials. “These are pretty serious cases.”
He questioned that once they are caught up, how long they can stay that way because more cases keep coming.
When asked the source of these extra cases, Sayers responded that most are drug-related in some way, and aren’t all just simple possession or sale of drugs.
There are people driving under the influence of drugs, stealing to feed their drug habit and other crimes such as assaults committed while under the influence of controlled substances.
The status of the staff at the jail was also discussed. It was noted two new corrections officers have been hired, but the jail is still short two full-time positions.
A few employees have been lost to the Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility, which is re-opening as an immigration and custom enforcement building. Warden David Kessling stated that it is possible more employees will choose to go there.
“We have to start paying people (more),” he noted.
Since the contract with the facility and ICE is only for five years, Ammerman commented that the people leaving can make more money there, but they will not necessarily have a job in five years.
In other business:
- Commissioner Dave Glass commented that the warden is doing a great job of keeping the jail well under budget. When Ammerman said that the transportation of prisoners has been a problem due to COVID limiting the number of prisoners in a vehicle, Glass suggested that maybe some of the county’s COVID funds could help with those extra expenses.
- Kessling reported that there are nine prisoners on work release right now. Businesses have been asking for additional workers, but it has been difficult to find inmates who meet the criteria for the program. He noted that two inmates on work release were later hired full-time by their employer.