BY PAT FARNELLI

WYOMING COUNTY PRESS EXAMINER

The Wyoming County Correctional Facility had 91 prisoners Monday.

And, 86 of them were still housed in the jail as of Tuesday morning, Warden Ken Repsher said during his report at the prison board meeting.

“I have many on cots, and seven in the Susquehanna County Correctional Facility,” Repsher said. “I have arrangements already made, and Lackawanna County, after sentencings tomorrow, will take 20 (inmates).”

The jail normally holds about 60 prisoners: maximum capacity is 75.

For the past eight months, the jail has been operating at unusually high numbers.

Repsher said that he is having to add on more staff, and that is raising costs to run the facility.

“I made arrangements to send one corrections officer off to police academy, and have three more to send after that,” Repsher said.

He noted that the new deputy warden Gordon L. Traveny Jr. has been working out very well.

He concluded, “I would like to commend the staff for continuing to do a good job despite high numbers.”

Last month, President Judge Russell Shurtleff told the prison board that the increase in arrests and incarcerations seems to stem from the new Super Walmart and the influx of the gas industry.

Repsher said he agreed with that opinion.

Last month, he said he had to send boarder inmates from Sullivan County elsewhere, and said that he might soon have to board Wyoming County prisoners in other jails.

That prediction has become reality with the New Year.