CLEARFIELD- A new year means changes for the Clearfield County Prison Board, but during Tuesday’s reorganization meeting there was only one major change.
With the retirement of Fredric Ammerman Clearfield County now has a new President Judge, Paul E. Cherry, and he attended his first prison board meeting and was elected chairman of the board.
Commissioner John Sobel will continue as vice chairman and Controller Robert Edwards as secretary.
The regular meeting schedule works best for everyone so the meetings will continue to be held the third Tuesday of every month at noon in the commissioners’ meeting room, except for the May meeting, which will be held May 12 due to the primary election.
The next meeting will be held March 17.
The other board members include commissioners Tim Winters and David Glass, Warden Krisha Oates, District Attorney Ryan Sayers and newly elected Sheriff Chester Hawkins. Sayers and Hawkins were absent from the meeting.
During the regular meeting the board was pleased to learn there had been no extraordinary events at the jail in December.
A discussion was held regarding the work release program and members of the board will look at options and then meet and discuss what can be done to increase the number of work release inmates prior to the March meeting.
Oates said that staffing is very good at the jail, but they could use more part time corrections officers.
Sobel said he was made aware of incidents where inmates didn’t have rides once they were released.
One had to hitchhike and was eventually given a ride, another found a ride with help from county personnel.
There was discussion on whether there could be an arrangement with the Area Transportation Authority for one-time trips from the jail to wherever the released individual needs to go.
Oates said she spoke with ATA and there were a lot things that were needed, including accounts, identification, etc., and the commissioners said they would look into whether ATA would be willing to set up something that wouldn’t require all of those additional things.
The board members will look into various options and bring back ideas to create a policy at the next meeting, taking into account temperature, weather conditions and other factors.
Oates also thanked everyone who responded and helped during the fire emergency in the kitchen at the jail, noting that while everyone responded appropriately, there were a few things they found that can be improved on.
