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A Jamestown woman has been charged with endangering the welfare of children for the second time this year.
At 7:30 p.m. Monday, city police officers responded to a home on the city's north side for a reported domestic incident. Serina L. Penhollow, 35, of Jamestown was charged after officers found the home had a quantity of rotten food, accumulated trash built up, animal feces and a plethora of bugs. Penhollow was charged and taken to the city jail until she could be arraigned.
The children were placed in the care of a relative and CPS was notified.
Penhollow was also charged on Jan. 22 with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child after officers responded to a north side home following reports of children potentially living in deplorable conditions. During the investigation it was found that Penhollow had three children under the age of 17 allegedly living in deplorable conditions with feces, trash, and other garbage strewn about the home.
City police have filed the charge of endangering the welfare of a child 34 times from January through the end of March, the latest data available through the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Instances of endangering the welfare of a child in the city had been on the upswing from 2021 through 2024, increasing from 80 charges in 2021 to 87 in 2022, 117 in 2023 and 156 in 2024 before a decrease to 135 in 2025. This year the city was on pace to match the 2025 level of endangering the welfare of a child cases through the first three months of 2026.
Jamestown police use the charge more often than any other police agency in Chautauqua County. In 2026, Jamestown’s 34 endangering the welfare of a child cases account for 73.9% of the county’s 46 total cases.
Countywide, there were 141 endangering the welfare of a child cases filed in 2021, increasing to 163 in 2022, 198 in 2023, 223 in 2024 and decreasing to 203 in 2025. Jamestown, accounted for 56.7% of those cases in 2021, 53.4% of endangering the welfare of children cases filed in 2022, 59.1% of endangering the welfare of a child cases filed in 2023, 69.9% of endangering the welfare of a child cases filed in 2024 and 66.5% of endangering the welfare of a child cases filed in 2025.