Monroe County Commissioner John Moyer brought up the increase of employee overtime once again and the Warden Garry Haidle was quick to explain.

“We had vacations during August, complications, lots of hospital duty. We have a lot of mental health issues where we had suicide attempts and we have to do one-on-one then,” Haidle said.

The Monroe County Correctional Facility had two suicide attempts over a three to five day period, he said.

Haidle also said COVID-19 is slowly creeping back into the Monroe County Correctional Facility, and they now have to man the isolation units that previously were not being used.

Lea Baylor, director of treatment, addressed the prison board about the lack of transportation for inmates needing a way to get to where they are supposed to be going on the day they are released.

Some of the new releases do have a relative or friend willing to come pick them up on the day of their release, but more times than not, she said they don’t have transportation.

“This leaves the inmates to hang around hoping to get a ride, and we really can’t have that, so I just wanted to put that out there,” Baylor said.

Baylor reminded the board about a previous occasion when they had a new release who needed to get to the Salvation Army area on Main Street in Stroudsburg to get their discharge plan and we couldn’t get them from point A to point B.

“Now because of the COVID restrictions, some of the forensic case management services don’t put the consumers in their vehicles anymore, so it is just barrier after barrier, and my concern is when you have individuals we have to ask to leave here, then that can escalate a situation, giving us subsequently a call to the police from someone who just got released from jail,” Baylor said.

The board members and the commissioners considered several suggestions, such as reaching out to the bus company and local taxi service. The commissioners are going to explore what options would be the best solution.

In other business

• Programs and services offered to inmates have resumed and most of the programming that was offered in the facility has started.

• The new mixer purchased for the kitchen has not arrived yet due to shipping delays.

• Progress has been made on having the jail’s roof repaired. The warranty was not carried by the original contractor, but a third party company. Now the process of locating the third party who holds the warranty will begin.