Inmates to be moved into new Northumberland Co. prison this month

(Harrisburg) — A midstate county is opening a new prison, some three years after a fire destroyed the old one. 

Now more than 200 inmates need to be transferred to the new facility.

Most of Northumberland County’s inmates are being housed in the nearby State Correctional Institution in Coal Township. The rest are scattered among neighboring county jails.

County Commissioner Sam Schiccatano said the inmates are scheduled to move soon, but exact dates can’t be disclosed for security reasons.

“We’ll be moving the Coal Township people first and one they get situated, everything gets settled with them, then we’ll be going to the outer counties that have our inmates and moving those in slowly, maybe one day at a time until we get all our inmates in there, which hopefully will occur by the end of the month,” he said.

Schiccatano said he doesn’t believe the state prison system’s recent lockdown will affect the move.

The new prison, built on the site of an old juvenile detention facility in Coal Township, has space for about 280 male and female inmates, as well as juveniles.

Schiccatano said the project wrapped up nearly one million dollars under budget at just less than $22 million.

“Because of the complex we had, we only had to build half of it brand new. We brought in the secure cells that were pre-made, and the rest of the prison was just remodeled. And I think that was a big savings for us,” he said.