The Office of County Inspections and Services is responsible for maintaining a statewide program of independent field inspections of all county prisons. A minimum of every 12 months and a maximum of every 24 months, each county prison receives an inspection.  Inspections determine prison compliance with controlling Commonwealth statutes and regulations. To support the inspection process, the Office of County Inspections and Services provides technical services to any requesting county prison.  DOC county prison inspectors assist in the interpretation of state law, regulations, plus “best practices.” Training assistance is available through the Office of County Inspections and Services Resource Library. This library allows any county prison to borrow videos, books, and publications for staff development use. 

The Inspection Process

County inspections are conducted under the Pennsylvania Code, Chapter 95, County Correctional Institutions. Effective October 13, 2009, the standards contain 48 essential regulations and 93 non-essential regulations. If a violation occurs in one or more of the essential regulations, a citation is issued. If a violation occurs in one or more of the non-essential regulations, a deficiency is issued. The inspection process evaluates each regulation individually. If a regulation requires a local policy and specifies certain criteria that must be contained in policy, the inspector reviews the policy for the necessary criteria. The county receives its grade on each regulation based on compliance with noted criteria. If policy or protocol is lacking in any area, a deficiency or citation is issued, until the prison chooses to make any necessary adjustment and comes into compliance.  

A recent change to the process allows each regulation to stand alone, evaluated on its own merit. The office no longer issues a pass/fail for the inspection. Based on the number of essential and non-essential compliant standards, the certificate now reflects a grade for each. This allows for a more accurate description of compliance of required minimum standards. Each facility is issued a certificate, regardless of the actual grades received.

Corrective action, if any, is solely the decision of the warden and the county administrator/prison board of that facility.     

While the Office of County Inspections and Services has inspection oversight responsibility of county correctional facilities, the oversight is specific to Title 37 issues; the office does not have daily operational/investigative responsibilities. Any concern regarding a county facility should appropriately be directed to the warden/designee of the facility.