A federal Justice Assistance Grant could help Carbon County add a new position aimed at reducing its prison population.

The Carbon County Prison Board gave the go-ahead on the grant application Wednesday following a pitch by chief adult probation officer Rick Parsons.

If the county gets approval, the grant would be guaranteed for one year at $150,000 with possible funding for a second year at 70 percent.

“I think an idea would be to get someone on staff to concentrate on our pretrial prison population,” Parsons said.

“They would most likely do in-house assessments on individuals who are unable to post bail and see if there are ways to get them out of the prison if the assessment calls for that. This would of course only apply to low-risk offenders. There would also be an opportunity to refer prisoners to the appropriate programs if there are mental health concerns or opioid issues, things like that. I think there is an opportunity here not to just reduce prison numbers, but also collect key data that we can utilize going forward.”

Prison overcrowding has been on the board’s plate for years. The average daily population at the Carbon County Correctional Facility is at 225, with the maximum amount of beds at 247.

Carbon County Sheriff Anthony Harvilla said prison populations have decreased nationwide for the third consecutive year thanks in part to programs such as the one Carbon County hopes to implement.

Prison officials estimate around 40 percent of the current inmates are in the pretrial phase of their proceedings.

Without concrete numbers before him, Parsons estimated Montgomery County’s pretrial prison population stood at nearly 25 percent of its total.

“Chester is also probably pretty low,” Parsons said. “Monroe might be higher, but I think it’s safe to say Carbon is probably on the high side.”

Magisterial district judges often make a decision on bond based on the offense and what was said at a preliminary hearing, Harvilla said, but giving them another tool to make a decision on detention based on risk of flight or danger to the community could be a positive thing.

“If there are no dangers, that person can probably be supervised in the community,” he added. “We need to have our finger on the pulse of the trends within this prison.”

The board also discussed forming a committee to regularly address the prison population and manage it.

One of the first individuals to volunteer for that group was county Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard.

“Pennsylvania houses inmates longer than any other state, and to me, that is unacceptable,” Gerhard said.

“We have people in this facility that I, and many other people, believe shouldn’t be here. The longer they are here, they probably lost their job and probably their home. We’re making better criminals out of them.”

Adding a new position with grant money for the first year is nice, but the county’s financial planners know that eventually that grant money fades away.

Robert Crampsie, county controller, said it’s not always easy to assess a program like this after the first couple of years and say it’s working or it’s not.

“I don’t think you can base a decision like this banking on the fact you can just undo it later,” he said. “I think you have to buy into the concept and go with it.”

County officials fear if they don’t get a firm grasp on the prison population now, increased costs could be on the way down the road.

Schuylkill County, for example, is already paying more than $60 per inmate per day to ship prisoners to other facilities.

“In the end, we either control the population,” Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said, “or we’ll be putting a modular unit out there or some kind of addition. I think this is something we have to give a shot.”