Carbon County officials are still trying to figure out what is the best way to cut overtime costs at the prison.

On Wednesday, the county prison board again discussed the high amounts of overtime occurring at the correctional facility. Since the December meeting, overtime hours add up to 921 for the 37 full-time corrections officers.Part-time hours for 11 corrections officers also total up to 1,074.5 hours, well above the standard number of hours supposed to be worked by part-time staff in a month.Commissioner William O’Gurek said that the county is waiting from the state to finalize the process for the Department of Corrections to do a staffing analysis.“The original intent was the basic question, what can we do better with more part-time and more full-time,” he said.He said it comes down to a mathematical problem in figuring out how much overtime is spent and then taking that figure to determine how many additional full-time corrections officers could be hired within that same amount.This analysis would determine if the prison would be able to cut overtime hours significantly enough with the additional help or if there would still be a need.Deputy Warden Ryan Long, who was filling in for Warden Timothy Fritz, said that if the part-time corrections officers spots were fully staffed it would help the problem, but the county has seen a continuous revolving door in the part-timers getting hired, trained and actually staying for a significant period.Robert Crampsie, county controller, said the overtime figures also represent a holiday period so it is slightly higher than normal.He said the full-timers at the prison all have been there for years, meaning they have accrued quite a bit of vacation time, compounding the problem.The problem came to light last year when the county determined that its prison overtime costs were on track to hit $310,000 by the end of 2016. The final tally was $301,607.17Before that, the county spent $276,000 in overtime costs in 2015; and approximately $160,000 in 2013 and 2014.In other matters, Carolee Boyer, outpatient treatment supervisor at Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission, provided a brief update on the drug and alcohol program currently operating at the prison.Boyer said that since Jan. 12, 2015, the commission saw 208 people who were incarcerated and met requirements for in-house treatment.She also reported that of the people seen in prison, there is about a 42 percent recidivism rate that the commission is aware of and about one-third of the people served while in prison didn’t follow through with care once they aren’t incarcerated.“They all get an appointment prior to leaving the jail to continue services outside, and they didn’t follow through,” Boyer said, adding that the 34 percent noncompliant group is still lower than those who just are serviced at the commission’s Lehighton office.She said that there are a few changes to the program, including staffing.There will be two counselors now coming in a few days a week each to see people instead of one working there full-time.This will allow for approximately 10 more people to be serviced in prison.It will also provide a smoother continuity in care services because the same counselor will handle the person’s case while incarcerated and then continue when that person is discharged.“Hopefully that helps (the noncompliant continue),” she told the board.Carbon County renewed the contract for the drug and alcohol treatment program last month at an annual cost of $54,000, paid for using the prison commissary fund.The program through Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission began in Carbon in 2015.