Mental Health America estimates that 1.2 million people living with mental illness sit in jail and prison each year.

In Schuylkill County, 39 county jail inmates saw a psychiatrist in January. By April, the number was up to 65.With that in mind, officials are mapping out plans to help inmates with mental illness to reduce their chance of ending up back behind bars."On May 21, county officials and corrections department staff participated in a webinar training about the Stepping-up Pennsylvania program, which is an initiative to reduce the prevalence of people with mental illness in county jails," Warden Eugene Berdanier wrote in his monthly report, released at a prison board meeting Wednesday."Several counties are considering participation, and Dauphin County is the first model county involved," he wrote.County commissioners must pass a resolution to be included in the program.On May 5, Berdanier met with a representative of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, which enrolls inmates without personal insurance coverage with the state Medical Assistance program. The program is funded through grants with no charge to the county, Berdanier said.And on May 17, he met with Courtney Fasnacht, executive director of the Northeast Pennsylvania Manufacturers and Employers Council.The meeting focused on developing an inmate program in the jail based on the YES workshop series.The workshops teach inmates the skills employers look for when hiring, including business etiquette, customer service and financial literacy. The workshops also offer mock job interviews, time management and goal setting, and how to write resumes and cover letters.In other prison board matters, commissioners renewed an inmate housing contract with Columbia County to house inmates at $60 per inmate per day.The state Department of Corrections in May ordered Schuylkill to stop accepting new inmates until it got the prison population below a daily average of 277 in order to alleviate overcrowding.The county began housing overflow inmates at other county prisons - Centre, Columbia, Delaware, Lackawanna and Berks - at $60 to $72 per inmate per day.The state lifted the restriction in August.As of Wednesday morning, the total number of inmates in the prison was 236, with 51 housed elsewhere.The county is considering long-range options by buying or leasing a building to house nonviolent inmates close to the end of their sentences, or through programming aimed at getting inmates ready for release.Commissioners sought requests for qualifications, and five companies submitted proposals for either programming or housing.They are Heim Construction Co. Inc., Orwigsburg; Crabtree, Rohrbach & Associates, Mechanicsburg; Fedetz & Martin Associates, Allentown; Core Civic, Nashville, Tennessee; and Geo Re-entry Inc., Houston, Texas.Officials are still reviewing the submissions.Expanding the number of hours part-time corrections officers can work has resulted in more staff, reducing overtime pay for full-time officers.In December 2016, the total overtime came to $38,397. In January it was $19,642. In February, it was $8,173. Last month, the county paid $11,462 in overtime, Berdanier said.President Judge William E. Baldwin, a member of the prison board, asked Berdanier for a comparison of the amount spent to train and pay part-time corrections officers and the amount of money saved on overtime.