The Schuylkill County Prison board voted to hire two new correctional officers recently.

Last week, James McIntyre was hired for a full-time position and Orlando Varano for part-time. Both offers are conditional upon meeting required qualifications.

Part-time officer Trevor Pavelko resigned as part-time corrections officer, which the board approved.

Prison board member and Commissioners’ Chairman Barron “Boots” Hetherington asked Warden Wapinsky how many full-time COs they have if fully staffed. Wapinsky said 45.

He said they have 15 spots to hire part-time COs.

“We’re hurting right now. We’re struggling,” Wapinsky said of the number of part-time correctional officers.

Wapinsky provided the census for September.

It showed the peak census was 273 and the female was 57. Census low was 250. Average number of outsourced inmates was 46. As of Wednesday, 57 inmates were outsourced in other facilities. Of those, 35 were in Centre County, 1 in Columbia County, 12 in Northumberland County and 9 in Snyder County.

Inmate population at the prison was 250. Males accounted for 204 while there were 46 women. Thirteen cells had three male inmates each in them, he said.

Good news on the COVID front. “We have zero cases of COVID inside the building,” Wapinsky said as of Wednesday.