An overhead shot of the Bucks County Correctional Facility that was on put on display by the county.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
The Bucks County Correctional Facility.
Credit: Tom Sofield/NewtownPANow.com
Bucks County is planning to undertake an overhaul of its prison system to add space to the men’s and women’s correctional facilities.
The Bucks County Commissioners Wednesday unanimously approved spending $812,861 with USA Architects, Planners and Interior Designers of Northampton County to complete the conceptual design of an addition to the Women’s Correctional Center, which is on the campus of the Bucks County Correctional Facility off Easton Road (Route 611) in Doylestown Township.
Officials said the project would add 300 beds for the county’s increasing number of female offenders and more room for treatment. An upgrade to the nearby but separate Men’s Community Corrections Center would add 90 medium security beds to sections of that facility.
Commissioner Robert Loughery and Kevin Spencer, Bucks County’s general services director, explained that the 40,000-square-foot addition to the women’s section of the Bucks County Correctional Facility could open as soon as 2020 if work begins in spring 2018. The addition would make the facility more than 300,000-square-feet when all is said and done.
Loughery further stated that the addition of medium security beds to Men’s Community Corrections Center would mean security measures would be increased in that section of the building, which mainly houses work release inmates and treatment programs.
The added modules for female inmates at the Bucks County Correctional Facility will be placed in the secured former recreation yard, Loughery said. He added that each module for both men and women now has their own secure recreation area.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Spencer said he did not have an estimated cost for the project.
Bucks County Department of Corrections officials and county leaders have been exploring ways to increase the bed count at the correctional facility and bring inmates who have to be shipped out of the county due to overcrowding back into local custody. Last month, the county spent more than $400,000 to house inmates at Kintock and Hoffman Hall in Philadelphia and the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
“We explored many options over the past several years, and this is the one we have chosen, Loughery said.
Some factors that have helped both male and female prison populations jump in recent years are the opioid epidemic, mobile license plate readers that help capture drivers
with warrants and speedy DNA testing for property crimes. The increases mean there are more criminal arrests and more people are being picked up on warrants, Loughery said.
