The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is affecting staffing levels at the Schuylkill County Prison.

At its Wednesday meeting, commissioners approved the transfer of $120,000 between line items with the prison budget to pay for overtime costs. While Finance Director Paul Buber said employee turnover is common at the prison, this year the pandemic necessitated the closure of the training school, which has recently reopened.

“We do have a couple pending correctional officers attending training right now, but in the interim we have to fill that gap because you have to keep a certain complement onboard because of it being a 24/7 operation,” Buber said.

How many employees were paid with those wages was not provided.

In other prison matters, Schuylkill County Prison Warden David Wapinsky provided an update on the inmate population recently.

As of Wednesday, 228 inmates were housed at the prison. Of those, 187 are males and 41 females. The November peak number was 250 while the lowest was 214. The highest female count was 49.

Centre County had the most county prisoners at 15, Columbia County 4, and Northumberland County 9.