While talking with voters during the past few months, it was called to my attention, that Centre County was considering the possibility of contracting with a federal agency to hold prisoners/detainees at the Centre County prison.  This was a major concern of the Bellefonte community when the facility was being built

There are several good reasons for MINIMIZING the use of the County’s prison by outside agencies.

• Centre County has a relatively low crime rate and relatively few problems with drugs.  The last thing we want to do is to bring criminals from outside areas into the county to make contacts.  We don't want to help criminals expand their networks by making friends in Centre County.

• In other prisons, gangs are a problem.  We don't want to facilitate gang activity in Centre County by introducing gang members to our local inmates.

• In other prisons, inmate health is a problem.  Whether it is HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, or MSRA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus), we do not want to expose either our prison staff or local inmates to these diseases.

• And frankly, it’s not good public policy to expand the criminal network by mixing undocumented individuals with prison inmates.

When the possibility of contracting with federal agencies to hold prisoners/detainees in the county prison became public, the response from the Commissioners was confused and contradictory.

• The CDT (9/25/2007) reported, "Exarchos said the county prison warden was approached by federal marshals earlier this year with a proposed contract for holding federal prisoners, as some other counties do. He said the county looked at the contract and decided against it. It is no longer under consideration, he said."

• The Collegian (9/25/2007) reported, "John Saylor, a county commissioner and chairman of the county prison board, said Eich's statement was the first time he'd heard anything about a potential contract with the federal government.  "This really comes as a surprise to me," he said. . .

 • The Collegian (9/25/2007) also reported, Tim Boyde, current Centre County administrator, also said he had not heard anything about a potential contract.  "There are no discussions," he said. "I can categorically deny it."

 • At the Commissioners public meeting on September 25th, Commissioner Dershem said, “Discussions we had, and this was months and months ago, was with the U.S. Marshals Service for doing some sort of agreement with them, not ICS or Immigration.”

 • Commissioner Saylor offered the following contradictory statement at the Commissioners meeting on the 25th, “I don't recall it ever being discussed, although early in my 13 month term as County Commissioner we got a request from Immigration people and it was a very short discussion and it was over with and hasn't been brought up since . . .”

I believe this issue remains ripe for discussion.  No contract is currently under consideration.  The current board has stated it will not pursue a contract in its final 3 months in office.

I'm looking for a longer term commitment.  I would like to see each of the candidates currently running for Commissioner agree that they will not enter into any contract to house federal or state prisoners/detainees during the next four years. (I would prefer that the pledge cover a longer period of time, but these individuals can't really bind their successors with a pledge.)