A day reporting center for people on parole or probation in Schuylkill County is about to open in Pottsville.
Joe Szeliga, chief of Schuylkill County Adult Probation, talked about the efforts Friday to bring a more positive change to the community for those in the system.
“The vision is to increase the rehabilitative part of probation,” he said while standing in the basement on the Lipkin Technology building, 1 S. Second St., Pottsville.
He said the center will likely open in the first or second week of February.
The Schuylkill County Drug and Alcohol Program received an approximately $230,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for services that can be used for a day reporting center, the first time for the funding, and for those who meet other criteria for treatment.
“Melissa found us the funding without the county paying for it,” Szeliga said of Melissa Chewey, Schuylkill County Drug and Alcohol program administrator, who wrote the grant, which is one they get annually.
Among other things, the grant will pay for a drug and alcohol case manager, probation officer, part of a probation aid, drug and alcohol treatment, ankle monitoring, and the rent and utilities and even some furniture for the day reporting center.
“We want to increase our positive outcomes. We want to really see people successful,” she said.
Pastor Vinnie Murray, a recovery coach with Open Arms Ministries, a 501(c)3 organization that offers a crisis center and men’s transitional house, said a Berks County university has given hundreds of chairs for the day reporting program. The crisis center is in Saint Clair and the house is in Pottsville. The nonprofit ministry helps those afflicted with drug and alcohol issues, and is donating computers to the program.
Mark Scarbinsky, county administrator, said the idea is one that has merit.
“The whole goal here is to reduce recidivism,” he said.
He said the day reporting center is “another tool” by the courts to help people to “keep them away from the behavior that got them incarcerated in the first place.”
Szeliga said he has wanted a day reporting program for years but it never materialized. He spoke with former Pottsville Area Development Corporation executive director Amy Burkhart last year and she mentioned the basement. Szeliga said a year lease was signed for the space in November between the county and PADCO. Chewey said the rent will be paid for by Schuylkill County Drug and Alcohol funds from the grant. Cost to rent the space is $900 a month. Nora Chiplona, interim executive director, said the board approved the lease in November.
“There’s a lot of space down here, we were really lucky to find it,” Chewey said.
Details are still being worked out, but Szeliga said the approximately 8-room, 3,000-square-foot space could be used for employment training, GED services, a location where Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous can hold meetings, treatment therapy including music and art therapy, pastor services, banking and financial counseling services.
“It can’t be less effective than anything we have done,” Szeliga said, adding he is optimistic the effort will bring improved change to the community.
About 2,000 people are on the case load, he said.
“Approximately 60 percent of people under supervision have a major, life-affecting drug addiction,” he said.
By having the day center as a resource he wants to “lessen those numbers so our community is safer and these families can heal and not bury their loved ones,” he said.
Services at the center would be for those who are under court ordered supervision.
Joe Nagle, a probation officer, said of his approximately 140-person case load, about 75 percent of them violate conditions. That can be a for a variety of reasons including no purpose in their lives, family problems and drug issues.
Szeliga said the day reporting center sadly will not be able to help everyone but it can help some.
“It’s a second chance program,” he said.