Somerset County Prison Board Deals with Overcrowding

The Somerset County Jail is running into a problem: it has too many inmates. The prison, which has sufficient space for male inmates, is running out of room for females. The jail has only 12 beds for women prisoners and when all are filled, the guards must resort to keeping some women in a holding cell. When the male population exceeds a prison capacity, men can be sent to other state prisons, but since only two state prisons house females, they must be sent to another county prison. The jail then incurs the cost of transporting the female inmates to another county and a nominal fee by the recipient jail. Somerset County Prison Board President Judge John Cascio says contrary to some reports, the Board is not considering paroling inmates as a viable solution to overcrowding. Instead, the the board will discuss alternative solutions at a meeting on Thursday.