Schuylkill County Prison Warden Michael Buchanan provided an update on spending, revenue, and population figures at the most recent meeting of the County’s Prison Board.
According to calculations by Coal Region Canary, the County has spent just shy of $7.8 million at Schuylkill County Prison through September 2026. The County expected to spend about $10 million there this year.
Schuylkill County Prison racked up $749,506.22 in expenses in September. Salaries and wages made up more than half of that, at $390,821.39. Wages for regular employees came to $267,130.23 of that, and overtime added $36,576.62.
Professional services were the next-largest expense at $132,378.74. One of the biggest drivers of that line is medical care, including hospitalization for inmates.
For the entire year to date, salaries and wages totaled a little mor than $3.8 million, about half of all spending. That includes $2.5 million in wages for regular employees and $502,930.25 in overtime. Nearly $1.5 million has been spent this year on professional services.
The prison spent $77,925 on temporary housing in September, bringing the 2026 total to $632,317.79. Next week, Schuylkill County Commissioners are expected to renew a temporary housing deal with Columbia County at $80 per day per inmate.
Columbia is one of several counties that Schuylkill uses to reduce overcrowding at the prison in Pottsville. According to Buchanan, at the time of the most recent Prison Board meeting earlier this month, there were 5 Schuylkill inmates at Columbia, 5 at Centre County, and 44 at Northumberland County.
The average number of outsourced inmates from Schuylkill County in September was 44.
Revenue at the prison this year is slightly more than $2 million. A little more than $1 million recently came in from the Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding, reported at the September Prison Board meeting.
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