Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin has asked the state to lift its ban on new inmates at the county jail by the end of June now that the population is down.

Citing ongoing overcrowding, the state Department of Corrections on May 4 ordered the county to stop accepting new inmates until it got the inmate population below a daily average of 277.The county began housing inmates at prisons in Delaware, Centre County, and Columbia County at $60 a day per inmate to reduce the population at the aging jail on Sanderson Street in Pottsville.As of Wednesday morning, 209 inmates were in the jail. Another 47 were being housed at the other prisons.The county is finalizing details with Berks County Prison to send inmates there if necessary.The average daily number is now down to 227 for the past three weeks, said Warden Eugene Berdanier.And the only inmates triple-celled are those in the two medical holding cells.But housing the inmates in other counties is expensive and problematic, Baldwin told the county Prison Board on Wednesday."There are tons of problems with this. They come up every day," he said.The problems include what to do with sentenced inmates who return to the county from their other prisons for hearings, and people jailed for missing child support payments who could be allowed work release to catch up on their bills.Baldwin said he'd like to see the prison housing an average of no more than about 240 inmates. That would allow some flexibility with the state-mandated cap to allow for an influx of inmates resulting from drug busts.Baldwin said the county needs to cut down on the prison population by scaling back returnees."We have to break the cycle," he said.He suggested enrolling more inmates in programs to better their chances of staying out of jail.Commissioners' Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr., who is also chairman of the prison board, suggested a program similar to the "YES" program in county high schools.That program involves bringing business leaders in to teach the skills needed to succeed. The inmates would receive certificates upon successful completion of the program, he said.The inmates could show the certificate to prospective employers as an incentive to hire them.The board also discussed housing inmates in rehab in "treatment blocks" to keep them away from inmates who would discourage their progress.