Lackawanna County officials seek solution to mail-in ballot issue at county prison
Apr. 19—Lackawanna County Prison and election bureau officials say they're working to resolve an issue that could prevent inmates who are legally eligible to vote from casting mail-in ballots in the May primary election.
Under the prison's current mail policy, inmates would not be able to receive paper copies of mail-in ballots because all incoming mail at the prison, with the exception of legal documents, is sent to an outside company that scans the original. The company then transmits a digital copy that inmates access through prison-supplied computer tablets, Warden Tim Betti said.
Under Pennsylvania law, inmates convicted of misdemeanor charges and those imprisoned while awaiting adjudication of their cases are eligible to vote while incarcerated.
The mail-in ballot issue came to the forefront Wednesday after Beverly Debarros, a prison volunteer who has worked to register inmates to vote, raised the matter at the county prison board meeting.
Pennsylvania is among at least 14 states that allow state prisons and county-level prisons and jails to scan mail and provide inmates a printed or electronic version of the original, according to a 2022 report by the Prison Policy Initiative, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit group that researches mass incarceration. The practice is designed to reduce the amount of contraband entering prisons.
Debarros has worked since February to register 57 inmates to vote. She said she is permitted to deliver applications for absentee ballots by hand to eligible inmates, but the ballot itself must be mailed to the requester by the election bureau.
At the board meeting, Betti assured Debarros the prison would pay the postage and ensure completed ballots are mailed out. Speaking after the meeting, he said he does not know yet how the prison will ensure inmates get the ballots in the first place.
"That's a very good question," he said. "I'm going to have to check into this."
Reached after the meeting, Beth Hopkins, director of the Lackawanna County Department of Elections, said she was just made aware of the mail-in ballot issue on Wednesday. She will meet with officials to discuss how to resolve the matter.
"We will certainly figure out a way to make the mail-in system work," she said.
In other business, the board is continuing efforts to hire an outside firm to audit the prison's commissary and inmate fund accounts. Solicitor Frank Ruggiero said board members are reviewing a list of firms that could perform the work.
Judge James Gibbons, board president, said the board will consider a request to have prison officials provide a monthly report detailing the number of people held in solitary confinement, the reasons they were remanded there, their age, gender and ethnicity and the number and reason behind any lock downs.
Gibbons also said the board is still reviewing its solitary confinement policy, which has come under fire in the past few months.
Contact the writer: tbesecker@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9137; @tmbeseckerTT on Twitter.
