HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County leaders are showing interest in a consulting company’s proposal to examine prison staffing levels and potential improvements through the use of computer software apps.

While the initial exam is being offered to the county at no cost, there will be a cost if the county wants to follow through with developing and using workforce management apps for the prison’s day-to-day operations.

Overwatch Innovations LLC co-founder Derek Oberlander, who on Thursday addressed the Blair County Prison Board, said after the board meeting that he couldn’t estimate the potential cost for the county because he doesn’t have enough information to make that calculation.

But Oberlander and co-founders Robert Smith and Eric Tice — all retired from the state Department of Corrections — are offering to work with county prison personnel on collecting staff-related data toward what becomes a baseline to use in analyzing staff levels.

The company, Oberlander told the Mirror, was formed in September and is headquartered in New Bethlehem, Clarion County.

Commissioners Chairman Dave Kessling, who said he worked with all three co-founders during his prior work in state and county correctional facilities, spoke in favor of allowing the company to move forward with its initial no-cost pilot program.

To proceed beyond that, Kessling spoke of needing a firm cost, a statement that Oberlander acknowledged.

While prior county leaders made two efforts within the last 10 years to examine prison staffing levels — in 2015 through an internal study and then in a 2018 study by the state Department of Corrections — Kessling spoke of flaws in both and how the Overwatch Innovations staffing analysis will be more scientific and applicable to the county’s prison.

After the 2018 state study was reported to have identified security concerns because of inadequate staffing levels, then-commissioners Bruce Erb, Terry Tomassetti and Ted Beam Jr. increased the prison’s 2019 budget by $544,000 to pay for the hiring of 13 additional full-time corrections officers. As of Thursday, the prison maintained a complement of 95 full-time corrections officer positions, with 12 vacancies and nine trainees.

Kessling also brought up plans for constructing a new prison and how it might affect staffing levels. District Attorney Pete Weeks referenced specific components proposed within the new prison and President Judge Wade A. Kagarise asked how changes in inmate numbers would affect the analysis.

Tice responded that a lot of the framework for a staffing analysis can be compiled now, with portions that can be carried over or modified for use in a new facility.

“But we can’t do a staffing analysis with just a blueprint,” Tice said.

When Weeks asked about delaying the staffing analysis, fellow prison board member Laura Burke spoke in favor of allowing the consultants to begin gathering information now so there’s time to learn how to use it.

Kessling also mentioned that the timeframe for building a new prison is three years from the signing of a contract.