Luzerne County retaining prison consultant

Luzerne County has retained an outside consultant to examine prison operations, county Manager Romilda Crocamo announced Friday.

“As I have stated before, the administration is committed to ensuring the highest standards of safety and efficiency at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. To address the current challenges we face, I am announcing the hiring of a specialized consultant who will assist us in tackling staffing issues and enhancing our operational effectiveness,” Crocamo’s statement said.

The consultant — Dauphin County-based Sweeney Corrections Consulting — was “highly recommended” and will receive $200 per hour, Crocamo said.

Company owner/operator Edward Sweeney will work on upgrading the prison’s standard operating procedures “to ensure they meet the evolving needs of our facility and the community we serve,” her announcement said. Sweeney also will conduct a thorough review of the current staffing structure and collaborate with the administration to “develop strategic solutions,” it said.

“I believe that this partnership will provide valuable insights and foster improvements that will strengthen our operations and enhance the overall environment within the facility,” Crocamo said.

The consultant’s site, sweeneycorrections.com, said Sweeney has more than three decades of high-level corrections experience and is “poised to help others navigate the many challenges of the American corrections system.”

He has operated the consulting service since March 2017 and previously worked as Lehigh County’s director of corrections from September 1999 through January 2017. In that cabinet-level position in Lehigh, which is also a home rule county, Sweeney was responsible for overseeing a 1,350-bed jail, a 400-bed community corrections center and 48-bed juvenile detention center.

Prior to that position, Sweeney held progressively advanced correctional positions in Lehigh County, starting as a corrections officer at the end of 1984 and becoming warden of the county jail in February 1993.

He has a bachelor’s degree in business management and holds various correctional certifications.

According to the latest county division report, the total average daily population was 557 at the prison on Water Street and minimum offenders building on Reichard Street, both in Wilkes-Barre.

The county prison system has a $31.7 million budget this year and approximately 290 union workers and 20 non-union employees, the budget report said.

Issues periodically made headlines at the facility.

Most recently, council approved two legal settlements requiring the county to pay $150,000 each to the estates of two female prison inmates related to their 2023 suicide deaths.

The prison came up during Crocamo’s Thursday presentation before the county Government Study Commission, which is considering potential changes to the home rule charter that must be put before voters to be implemented.

Commission member Stephen J. Urban, a prior county councilman, said he believes the county should restore a prison board that was eliminated by home rule, asserting a board could “offer some advice.”

“I think a lot of litigation still comes out of that operation. I don’t know how we tame that beast,” he said.

Echoing predecessors, Crocamo said the multi-story layout of the aging prison is “extraordinarily challenging.”

She said a prison board could appear to be a good thing in theory, but the facility in the past had “become a political dumping ground.”

Crocamo said two county branches — correctional services and Children, Youth and Families — have more liability exposure due to the nature of their work, but the county has worked to implement positive changes.

One example she cited is a medication-assisted treatment program to address the agonizing physical and mental effects for inmates withdrawing from opioids upon arrival.

“There are things we can do that can reduce our exposure, but there will always be some level of litigation that comes out of the prison,” Crocamo told the commission.