Carbon County has a new deputy warden.

On Tuesday, the county prison board voted to name Ryan Long of Lehighton as the second in command under Warden Timothy Fritz."It was a tough decision that we had to make but we felt that Ryan was the best candidate," Fritz said, noting that Long had already been helping him in that capacity during the interim. "I'm looking forward to working with him and hopefully we can continue to improve here at the facility and get things going in the right direction."Long, who has served at the county prison for 15 years, eight of those as sergeant, said he was happy for the opportunity and challenge."I'm excited about it," he said. "I'm looking forward to working with Warden Fritz to tackle some of the issues up here. There will be new challenges and more responsibilities but I'm up for it."Fritz said Long was one of six candidates interviewed for the position, which was created after he was named warden earlier this year.Long's new duties will include dealing with everything from union issues to inmate grievances and will be "the warden's right hand man."Long's new position goes into effect on Nov. 9. His salary will be set on Nov. 5 by the Carbon County Salary Board.In other matters, Frank Shubeck, work release director, reported 17 inmates were on the work release program for the month, with 11 of those being active.The difference between the figures was because those six were released from the prison."This is one of the highest number (in the program), in years," Shubeck said, noting that he believes the biggest reason for the increase is that two major employers in the county are hiring the work release eligible inmates for entry-level positions.The work release program is available to nonviolent and minimal crime inmates who have been approved by the courts.They can either receive immediate work release eligibility or can become eligible if they serve at least half of their sentence, have had no disciplinary problems while incarcerated and have no serious detainers.To be eligible to go out to work, inmates must also have full-time employment in Pennsylvania and the employer must cover proper insurances.If they do not have a job but are eligible for work release, Shubeck said that they will then be utilized for the community service program, which provides municipalities, nonprofits and other organizations with the opportunity to receive help for various projects.The county prison will also be replacing some piping for its water supply because its aging system is springing leaks.Charles Neff, maintenance supervisor at the prison, said that there have been some problems and that the prison has been working to replace the pipes for nearly a year but changes in the pipes and fittings have caused some time delays.Once the items are delivered, the project should take approximately two hours to complete, he told the board.The cost for the updates is approximately $2,500.