Long-range plans to ease overcrowding at Schuylkill County prison gathered strength Wednesday when commissioners agreed to seek requests for qualifications from firms to determine options for an intermediate punishment center.

The center would house nonviolent inmates who are close to the ends of their sentences. The center would provide structure, life skills, counseling, treatment, and other tools to become productive, law-abiding citizens.The options could include an actual building, or a program, or both, said Commissioners’ Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr.A request for qualifications is a kind of pre-selection process for potential contenders for a project.A cost range will have to wait until after commissioners have gathered more information as to what the options are.“It’s going to be a cost to the taxpayers. There’s no way around it,” Halcovage said.He said the opioid epidemic and mental illness are fueling the chronic overcrowding.“It’s rampant everywhere,” he said.Intermediate punishment costs less than prison, and keeping people out of prison will save money in the long run, Halcovage said.Overcrowding has long been an issue in Schuylkill at the aging prison, on Sanderson Street in Pottsville.The state Department of Corrections in May ordered the county to stop accepting new inmates until it got the population below a daily average of 277.It lifted the restriction in August.The county reduced the population by sending overflow inmates to prisons in Centre, Columbia, Delaware and Berks County at a cost of $60 to $72 per inmate per day.As of late Wednesday morning, the prison population stood at 238, with 63 inmates housed in other counties.About 10 years ago, commissioners ended a plan to build such a center near the state prison in West Mahanoy Township because it would have cost too much.“We know we have to do it, but we want to do it the right way,” said Halcovage said.Halcovage said he is concerned that the state’s proposed budget includes cutting intermediate punishment program funding by $18.2 million. It’s unclear if or how that might affect Schuylkill’s plans.In a related move Wednesday, Commissioner Gary J. Hess and Halcovage (Commissioner Frank J. Staudenmeier was absent) authorized an inmate housing agreement with Lackawanna County for $60 per inmate per day.