South Heidelberg chief wants fewer ex-prisoners in state’s halfway house

by Steve Reinbrecht

UPDATE: The state Department of Corrections did respond to my request for comment. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++

The South Heidelberg police chief has safety concerns about hundreds of men, right out of prison, housed in the middle of nowhere [the eastern part of South Heidelberg] traveling back and forth to Reading on BARTA buses looking for work, hanging out with friends or perhaps buying heroin.

“A lot of residents have voiced their concerns over this,” Chief Barry Whitmoyer said.

He's worried about dangerous drugs at the Wernersville Community Corrections Center, off Sportsman Road.

Residents have left the center recently and done bad things. They come and go all day long.

The WCCC had 278 residents Oct. 26, according to a state corrections department report. Two were murderers, six were sex offenders, 22 had been imprisoned for assault, and 69 for arson, robbery or burglary.

Some have been in trouble lately. Last Monday, Nov. 14, a WCCC resident returned from a work-related day pass with suspected drugs and paraphernalia, state police said.

In October, another man who had a bed in the WCCC, Harold J. McGurl Jr., 42, of Ashland, was charged with trying to slash a man to death back in his hometown after leaving the WCCC.

In August, another WCCC resident, Sean Patrick Gilgallon, from Lackawanna, was charged with robbing a bank in South Heidelberg and leading police on a chase and search.

Chief Barry Whitmoyer

Whitmoyer, who started as chief July 1, is concerned that the inmates bring drugs into the community, demonstrated by frequent overdoses.

In October, emergency responders rushed to Sportsman Road and Texter Mountain Road, where the WCCC is, 42 times for calls such as basic and advanced life support, cardiac-respiratory arrest, overdoses and unconscious victims.

In September, there were 40 calls. Some of those calls might be to the adjacent and separate state hospital, which treats people with mental disabilities.

WCCC residents on trips back and forth to city often get off BARTA buses at Redner’s Market on Penn Avenue to get food, sometimes hanging out in groups, Whitmoyer said. WCCC residents have asked people for money or offered to help customers carry groceries at Redner’s, he said.

Rusty Riley, that store’s assistant director, said he had not heard of complaints. Other Redner’s officials did not immediately respond to my calls and questions.

Whitmoyer wonders why the state has put ex-convicts in the state hospital campus, far from jobs and services, and for most, far from home.

Of the 278 men in the WCCC, 51 were from Berks, with others from mostly central counties, such as Lancaster [39], Lehigh, Northhampton and Schuylkill. Six men were from Philadelphia, according to the state corrections department. The state closed the correctional center in Allentown in August, and residents were expected to transfer to Wernersville.

The solution is to have only Berks residents there, Whitmoyer said. He also doubts there are opportunities for jobs or school at the remote location.

“How does it help them re-enter society if they're so far out?”

Similar community correctional centers in York and Harrisburg, for example, are in the cities. Harrisburg’s CCC is at 27 N. Cameron St. York’s is at 317 W. Market St., both downtown addresses.

The solution would be to reduce the number and limit it to Berks County residents, Whitmoyer said.

Christine Verdier, a spokeswoman for Sen. David Argall, said she would check to find out if Argall has asked for changes to the center’s policy or operations in response to local concerns.

No one returned calls at the center or state Rep. Jim Cox’s office.

Whitmoyer said center staff are receptive to working with the township and faithfully come to monthly supervisors meetings.

The WCCC is one of 14 community centers across Pennsylvania. The centers, also known as half-way houses, provide a “transitional process” by allowing residents to have monitored contact with jobs and educational opportunities, according to the state corrections department website:

The center houses inmates and offenders who have been granted parole by the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole.

“While at these centers, offenders are permitted to leave to go to work and school, but leaving the centers is not as easy as some people may think. The offender must have an actual purpose in order to leave the center, and center staff verifies the purpose and an offender’s whereabouts at all times.

“The offender must sign out in order to leave and they must return by a specific time. Center staff checks on each offender to ensure they are where they claim to be going. Offenders who break rules or who are not where they say they are face being issued misconducts and even return to prison. Staff works with the offender to help them be accountable and responsible for their actions,” according to the Pennsylvania Association On Probation, Parole, And Corrections.

Statistically, 60 percent of all ex-prisoners will break the law again, Whitmoyer said.

If you accept that premise, 167 of those in WCCC are apt to break the law again.

“Why bring them here to re-offend in our community?” Whitmoyer asked.