ARTICLE
The television camera rolled Friday morning as Tony Ianelli stood at the center of Northampton County Prison to film the opening of a special episode of his "Business Matters" show. Behind him, prison cells housing up to four inmates dotted the narrow, tiered hallway. Filming an episode of the WFMZ show from inside prison walls had been a longtime goal of Ianelli's, said Michelle Young, the show's producer. The episode, however, wasn't a publicity stunt but a discussion of recidivism and punishment at the county jail. The county has been wrestling with its recidivism rate for years, searching for ways to help inmates become law-abiding citizens. Aside from making the community safer, the county has an economic incentive for released convicts to stay on the straight and narrow. It costs the county approximately $100 a day to house an inmate, County Executive John Brown said. "Everybody has a stake in what happens in here and when our residents leave here," Brown told Ianelli during the taping. Click here to read the article.
The television camera rolled Friday morning as Tony Ianelli stood at the center of Northampton County Prison to film the opening of a special episode of his "Business Matters" show. Behind him, prison cells housing up to four inmates dotted the narrow, tiered hallway.
Filming an episode of the WFMZ show from inside prison walls had been a longtime goal of Ianelli's, said Michelle Young, the show's producer. The episode, however, wasn't a publicity stunt but a discussion of recidivism and punishment at the county jail.
The county has been wrestling with its recidivism rate for years, searching for ways to help inmates become law-abiding citizens. Aside from making the community safer, the county has an economic incentive for released convicts to stay on the straight and narrow. It costs the county approximately $100 a day to house an inmate, County Executive John Brown said.
"Everybody has a stake in what happens in here and when our residents leave here," Brown told Ianelli during the taping.
Click here to read the article.