No deficiencies, no citations.

State officials from the Department of Corrections inspected the Schuylkill County Prison on Dec. 11 and last week sent a letter of congratulations to county officials.

During the 2018 inspection period, the county prison was in full compliance, in accordance with state correctional standards.

As a result, the prison is now exempt from the normal one-year inspection cycle, and will go back into the cycle in 2020.

It’s been a long row to hoe.

Since 2010, issues with overcrowding of inmates, as well as repairs to the aging structure, have presented constant challenges. At times in past years, inmates were triple-celled. In response to a state directive, the county began housing inmates in other county prisons.

Last year, the cost for the outsourcing was $1.5 million. But by taking that corrective action, as well as by keeping up with repairs needed to the prison, the December inspection team from the state found “no deficiencies, no citations.”

The letter about the results of the inspection was sent to President Judge William E. Baldwin, who chairs the Prison Board, from Deputy Secretary of Administration Christopher Oppman.

Prison Warden Eugene Berdanier said that the details of the inspection, as well as other issues, will be discussed during a special meeting of the county’s Prison Board, which will be held at 11 a.m. Jan. 29 in the Hoffman Room of the County Courthouse. He said that he and the staff are pleased with the inspection results.

In the letter, Oppman gave the Schuylkill County Prison a glowing report.

“The staff commitment to compliance is evident throughout the facility,” Oppman wrote. “Staff should be proud of their accomplishments and are encouraged to maintain this level of compliance.”

Schuylkill County Commissioners’ Chairman George Halcovage said that prison officials did “a lot of hard work on policies and procedures to avoid overcrowding.

“And also with the support and hard work from the Sheriff’s Department, probation and parole, the courts, the issue were corrected,” Halcovage said. “The county prison has met all the requirements of the (state) Department of Corrections.”