The Monroe County Correctional Facility is fully staffed for providing addiction and mental health treatment for the first time in months.

Lea Baylor, the director of treatment, said this week, “We are now fully staffed, and we’re holding steady on outlay programs.”

The prison is developing a community reentry program for those with low and no income.

The program will provide newly released inmates with a list of resources and how to connect with them.

Baylor mentioned a fatherhood initiative where inmates go through counseling and learning to be a better father. The plan was received so well by the inmates in the program that she plans to do another round in September.

Baylor praised her in-house counselor who is responsible for doing the anger management program, which is often court ordered.

Referring to inmates regarding anger management, Baylor said, “You could see what they’re taking from that programming. I think she does an excellent job in the facility.”

“Despite whatever barriers that they have, we’re still able to present as much programming as possible for all of the individuals as our census continues to be around 400. So keeping individuals occupied, goal-focused and educated is primary. So I have to thank the warden, the deputy wardens for working with us, being able to accommodate access throughout the facility into the population,” Baylor said.

Now fully staffed, Baylor said, “I’m hoping to focus more energy, specifically addressing a reentry program from NCCF into the community, taking a look at better ways to support or reduce recidivism, and hopefully find a safe way for individuals after they become educated to reenter our community and be contributing members of our community, which is our goal focus as the treatment department.”

Reports

• The Deputy Warden of Security Joseph McCoy reported the unitwide searches recently found no notable contraband.

• Deputy Warden of Operations, Phil Diliberto reported that the leaking roof is still a problem.

“We are still waiting for the engineer to come and look at it,” he said.

Chairman John Moyer asked Diliberto if it is going to be feasible to repair the roof or at least part off it before winter.

Warden Garry Haidle reported the census is at 391 for July.

“We are in the high 90s and this goes up and down,” he said.

“As we moved forward with the correctional officer hiring, we worked on testing on July 27. We had 16 people tested, 11 interviewed and we have a testing scheduled for Aug. 31. We are currently at a complement of 100 officers and went down to one or two,” Haidle said.