HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Blair County Prison is down to 325 inmates as of Tuesday from last month’s average of 374, a reflection of efforts to transfer more inmates to state prisons and the current housing of 20 Blair County inmates at the Centre County Correctional Facility.

Reports reviewed Tuesday by the Blair County Prison Board showed 222 inmates released in March — either to other facilities or because the inmates finished their time.

“That’s a landmark number for releases,” Deputy Warden Shaun Edmundson told the board as he presented the report.

Generally, the prison’s monthly reports show the amounts of released inmates and admissions to be very close. But in March, the 222 released was 26 higher than the 196 admitted.

In recent months, county leaders, who have been hit with a slew of federal lawsuits from inmates and former inmates alleging civil rights violations while held in the aged county jail, have been taking steps to address conditions repeatedly mentioned in the lawsuits.

One of those steps has been to ask the state to accept more state-sentenced inmates from Blair County. Last week, two trips were scheduled allowing 15 county inmates to be transported to state facilities. So as of Tuesday, the county prison was housing 27 state-sentenced inmates, with two trips to state facilities scheduled this month and possibly a third, Edmundson reported.

Warden Matthew Hale told the board that the prison staff have had some success in recent months with getting the state to accept more inmates from Blair County.

But there’s no guarantee that will continue, said Commissioner Dave Kessling who chairs the prison board, referencing the state’s recent closing of Rockview state prison and Quehanna Boot Camp, which would decrease the amount of open beds in the state prison system.

“We can give them all the inmates we want, but it’s up to the state to decide when they’re going to pick them up,” Kessling added.

The decision to begin housing Blair County inmates at the Centre County Correctional Facility — currently 20 as of Tuesday — also factored into the lower inmate population and to halting an ongoing practice of housing inmates in the prison’s gymnasium.

Commissioner Amy Webster commended the prison administrators and told them: “I hope that’s the end of housing in the gym.”

When offering a report to the prison board, Hale spoke of cleaning and painting the gym to enhance its use for indoor recreation. Kessling also spoke of his interest in creating small indoor and outdoor exercise areas for those inmates with housing restrictions. One of the inmates who sued the county reported having no access to exercise because he was in restricted housing.

At Tuesday’s prison board meeting, President Judge Wade A. Kagarise proposed that the prison board play an active role in deciding how many inmates Blair County will transfer to Centre County or to any other county prison.

Kagarise said the prison board wasn’t part of the discussion that led commissioners to sign off on sending 20 inmates to Centre County. But that action and future actions will be placed on the May prison board meeting agenda, at Kagarise’s request.

“Before inmates are moved and housed in other locations, I think the prison board should discuss that option and set some perimeters,” Kagarise said after Tuesday’s meeting.

The commissioners — Kessling, Webster and Laura Burke — are members of the prison board. But they recently, in their role as commissioners, signed off on resuming use of an existing agreement to house Blair County inmates at the Centre County Correctional Facility at $75 per day.

If the county continues housing 20 inmates in Centre County, that will add up $1,500 a day or $45,000 a month — which would fluctuate as the amount of inmates changes.

Kagarise said his request for the prison boad to discuss the matter reflects a desire to be moving cautiously with housing inmates outside the county. And it should be the prison board — which also includes District Attorney Pete Weeks, Sheriff James Ott and Controller A.C. Stickel — who should have input into how the prison operates, according to the judge.

Kagarise also mentioned that since the county’s judicial bench returned to five full-time judges in January, serious criminal cases are starting to move along in ways that should help keep down the prison’s population, as long as the state keeps taking more state-sentenced inmates from Blair County. At one time, Kagarise said the county prison was housing more than 40 state-sentenced inmates, so there has been progress compared to the 27 it’s now housing.

The inmates or former inmates suing the county have also alleged in their lawsuits that housing inside the county’s aged facility has exposed them to health hazards linked to plumbing issues, rodents and mold.

Hale told the prison board on Tuesday that the exterminator hired last year, along with some sanitary changes, has made a difference with no recent rodent sightings.

“That does not seem to be an issue anymore,” the warden said.

Commissioners, in August, hired Robert’s Pest Control at $185 per month through July 30, 2026. It was previously using an exterminator that provided on-call services.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.