Schuylkill County may house some prison inmates as far away as York County to alleviate overcrowding.

But the cost, up to $75 a day per inmate, is almost twice the $44.23 a day the county spends to keep prisoners in the county jail. The county would transfer any inmates over the prison's 277 capacity.The counties being considered are York, Centre, Cumberland, Monroe, Lehigh, Luzerne and Lebanon, as well as state prisons. However, there is no extra space at the closest state prisons, Mahanoy and Frackville.The plan surfaced at a Prison Board meeting Wednesday.The county jail, on Sanderson Street in Pottsville, held 297 inmates as of Wednesday morning.The overflow is forcing the jail to house as many as three inmates in cells designed to hold two. That's only allowed by the state in temporary, emergency situations."The (state) Department of Corrections would like us to have our numbers down from triple-celling," said Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr., who is Prison Board president."The state is obviously putting the heat on us now," said Commissioners Chairman Frank J. Staudenmeier. "We're going to be shipping prisoners out, and that's unfortunate.""I know this is something we have to do. I know we've looked at alternatives as far as a permanent situation here in the county," said Commissioner Gary J. Hess. "This has been an issue for a long time."Warden Eugene Berdanier and county administrator Mark Scarbinsky have been contacting prisons in other counties to see if they have the space and are willing to house Schuylkill inmates."We've gotten copies of templates for agreements and memorandums of understanding, so we're ready to move forward with that based on the board's decision," Scarbinsky said.The rates vary from $65 to $75, Berdanier said. How many inmates any given county could hold varies, he said.At $44.23 per inmate per day, Schuylkill's cost is among the lowest in the state, Staudenmeier said.Halcovage said the state average is $67.76 per county inmate per day."The attitude the commissioners always took is let's look at the least-cost scenario. There are a lot of other important issues in Schuylkill County, such as our 911 system, Children and Youth Services office, Office of Senior services, that I would rather put money into. I think the people of Schuylkill County would, too," Staudenmeier said.Sheriff Joseph Groody, whose deputies would be taking inmates to and from other prisons, is concerned about the cost of bringing inmates in from far-flung prisons for court appearances, considering the potential overtime, mileage and fuel costs.Some of the prisons being considered are about a two-hour drive away."It's going to be very expensive. We're looking at a four-hour round trip, and that doesn't include waiting at the facility to pick the prisoners up," he said. "We need our own place to house these prisoners."The county is continuing to look at places to build a pre-release center, Halcovage said."We're looking at all the options," he said.Commissioners about 10 years ago ended a plan to build a center near the state prison in West Mahanoy Township because it would have cost too much. The county has also launched a pre-release program that involves electronic monitoring and strict supervision of some qualified inmates in order to relieve overcrowding.First Assistant District Attorney Maria Casey also questioned the costs, saying bringing inmates back for hearings would be costly.Berdanier said the inmates selected to be housed elsewhere would already be sentenced, so they would not typically be brought back for hearings. He also said video conferencing would keep costs down."We're going to be very selective of who we send," he said."Bad people need to be incarcerated and that's the challenge we have. It's something that has to be addressed, and we have to respect the (state) rules and regulations," Halcovage said.Schuylkill's plan is not unusual. According to the state department of corrections, the county prison population exploded by 94 percent between 1990 and 2011, soaring from 17,915 inmates to 34,823."There are 1,687 prisoners in the state who are housed in other counties," he said.