With a projected cost of up to $2 million to house inmates out of the county to comply with a state cap on the prison population, Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin on Wednesday underscored the need for a pre-release center.

"Until we get another facility of our own, the county is going to be paying to keep maybe 80 people in other prisons, maybe more than that, on an ongoing basis. That's going to be $1.5 or maybe $2 million dollars a year, not counting transportation costs," he said."I've made this case before. I think it's evident now: We need to have another facility, a pre-release center where we can move people out of prison and into an area where we can supervise them, and they can start to assimilate back into the community after we give counseling and treatment," Baldwin said at a county prison board meeting.The state Department of Corrections on May 4 ordered the county to stop jailing people whose sentences are a maximum of six months to five years until it attains an average daily population of 277 or fewer.Almost every defendant on whom a jail sentence is imposed serves a maximum of six months, Baldwin noted.As of Wednesday morning, the population stood at 298, said Warden Eugene Berdanier.Thirty-two inmates, 22 men and 10 women, were being housed in jails in Delaware and Centre counties, respectively. Housing inmates in other counties costs $60 a day each, not including transportation.Prison board chairman and Commissioners' Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr. said the county is negotiating with Columbia and Berks counties to house the Schuylkill inmate overflow.Despite the diversion, 49 inmates were triple-celled as of Wednesday morning. Berdanier said officials were screening inmates to determine which ones could be sent to other jails.The county is doing what it can to comply with the state order, Baldwin said.Wednesday was plea court, and about 29 defendants who will be sentenced will be given medical screenings, then ordered to report to jail on June 15.But they will not enter the old stone jail on Sanderson Street in Pottsville, across the street from the county courthouse. Instead, when they report for jail, they'll be loaded onto the sheriff's 15-seat van and taken to other counties."They'll just get on the bus and go wherever we decide to take them," he said.Also, officials are working to speed the process by which pleas are negotiated and to get defendants to trial.Baldwin said the county should aim to reduce the average population to 250 so it can absorb additional inmates in the event of a major drug bust.County judicial offices, including the district attorney, adult probation, and public defender, are being overtaxed by the requirements of complying with the state's order, he said."It's a real strain. We can't continue to operate like this," Baldwin said.Commissioner Gary J. Hess agreed.Responding to Baldwin's observation that the county needs to find a way to get better treatment for those addicted to heroin and other drugs - the drug epidemic is fueling the prison pollution explosion -to keep addicts from returning to jail, Hess said a "long term solution" is needed. "It's pay now or pay later," 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 also created a "virtual" pre-release program that involves electronic monitoring and strict supervision of some qualified inmates.Less than an hour earlier, commissioners approved an application to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for $100,000 grant to pay for a full-time drug court coordinator officer.The county expects to have a drug court operating later this year or by early 2017.Baldwin also said that, contrary to rumor, people can still be jailed until trial, and probation and parole violators will still be jailed - but in out-of-county prisons, if their sentences carry a maximum of six months or more. If they've committed new crimes, their sentences will likely be ordered to be served after the sentences for the visitors, meaning they may qualify for state prison time.Nor is the prison being vacated, Baldwin said.