A former Schuylkill County man was sentenced on Thursday in Carbon County court to a state prison term for possessing child pornography.

Judge Joseph J. Matika sentenced Kenneth Dale Schiff, 51, formerly of Frackville and now listing an address in Somerset, New Jersey, to serve seven to 24 months in a state correction institution. He previously pleaded to the charge.Matika also rejected a request that the sentence run concurrent with a state prison term Schiff is currently serving on similar charges stemming from incidents in Monroe and Lancaster counties. That term is two to five years.In rejecting the request, Matika noted that while the charges were pending in the Monroe and Lancaster cases, Schiff was arrested on the Carbon charges."That concerns the court. He did these crimes while the charges were pending in Monroe and Lancaster counties," Matika said.Schiff was arrested by state police at Swiftwater following an investigation handled by the state police computer crimes department.Troopers charged that Schiff had photos of juveniles involved in sexual acts and transmitted them on the Internet. The computer in question was located in a residence in Kidder Township.He was originally charged with photographing friends and children without their knowledge or permission.Troopers said those incidents occurred at campgrounds and a vacation home. Some of the victims were the children of a very close friend.Schiff told the court he was sorry for what occurred and apologized to two of the victims, who he described as "longtime friends."He said, "I take full responsibility for what I did." He said since he has been in the state prison system he is receiving counseling for sexual offenders and said it has helped him greatly to understand the wrong he did.His attorney, James A. Swetz, told Matika that the program Schiff is in could keep him in prison long past his minimum term because once a person is placed in such a program they must remain in it until successfully completing it.One of the victims' parents told Matika that Schiff was a close family friend. He said Schiff filmed not only the children but he and his wife naked.He said, "As Catholics we can forgive him for what he did."He added, "My children lost a lot of their innocence that day."In addition to the jail term, Matika ordered Schiff to render a total of 150 hours of community service when released on parole, supply a DNA sample, make restitution of $1,650, submit to a sexual offenders evaluation, have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18, except family members, and pay court costs of about $1,000.The charge falls under the provisions of Megan's Law. Schiff underwent an evaluation by the state sexual offenders assessment board and was found to be a sexual violent predator. He must register for life as a sexual offender.