The deluge of drunken driving-related offenders on house arrest has the county Intermediate Punishment Program coordinator crying for more help.

Mark Benedetto, community corrections coordinator, told the Mercer County Prison Board Monday that the 50-plus daily average of people on house arrest is too many for the two full-time workers and the part-timer to monitor.

Benedetto asked Mercer County Common Pleas Court President Judge Francis J. Fornelli to hire one or two additional full-time workers for IPP. The judge has not responded to the request, the community corrections coordinator said.

After contracting out the house-arrest program, the county began running the program in-house in March 2000. In 1999, the average daily house-arrest population was 21. That jumped to 47 in 2000, and so far this year it is in the 50s, Benedetto said.