People sentenced to jail terms in Schuylkill County may find themselves locked up in Berks County prison.

Commissioners on Wednesday approved an inmate housing agreement with Berks County at a rate of $60 a day.The county has been shipping inmates to prisons in Delaware and Center counties since the state Department of Corrections in May forbade Schuylkill from accepting new inmates due to overcrowding.As of Wednesday morning, 41 Schuylkill inmates were housed at the other prisons, in Delaware, Centre and Columbia counties, also at $60 a day each.That comes to a total of $2,460 for one day.The state on May 4 ordered the county to stop accepting new inmates at the aging jail on Sanderson Street in Pottsville until it got the population below a daily average of 277.At a June 15 prison board meeting, Warden Eugene Berdanier said the average daily population had been down to 227 for the previous three weeks.President Judge William E. Baldwin at that time said he had 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.- Chris Parker