Less than two months after the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections lifted its restrictions on admissions to Schuylkill County prison to end overcrowding, county commissioners are still debating the best way to find a long-term solution.

Commissioners' Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr. said at a public meeting Wednesday a group that included the offices of the district attorney, sheriff, public defender, adult probation, the county administrator, the three commissioners, and county solicitor Glenn Roth met Monday for what Roth on Wednesday described as an information session on ways to better coordinate and communicate to avoid prison population spikes.Minority Commissioner Gary J. Hess wants to make the group an official committee that would meet regularly and also include district judges and correctional officers.He would want the advisory committee to "look into all the options of where the prison is headed," he said at the public meeting Wednesday.The committee would examine scheduling, prerelease and post release programs and other options."I think we need to look at this wholly," he said.After the meeting, Hess said county officials have been reacting to prison population spikes instead of acting proactively."I don't want to just fix it for today," he said.When Hess raised the question of a formal committee Wednesday, Halcovage responded, saying the group includes everyone who should be involved."I think that we cover the expertise with what we have right now," he said."I understand that, and I just want to make sure that continues," Hess said. "I believe it's a critical situation over there (at the prison)."Halcovage said the group has already scheduled a second meeting.After the public meeting, he said President Judge William E. Baldwin had called the meeting Monday to examine the overcrowding issue."We know we have a common goal, to all work together," he said.Halcovage said the group had also brought in a company, Community Education Centers, to look at rehabilitative programming and in-house treatment options to reduce the numbers of inmates who return to jail after release.The West Caldwell, New Jersey, company currently works with prisons in several states, according to its website.Hess brought up the idea at an Oct. 5 public commissioners meeting. But no vote was taken because commissioner Frank J. Staudenmeier was absent.At an Oct. 12 public meeting, Hess said commissioners would discuss the idea for another week.Hess broached the matter again at a public meeting Wednesday evening.The overcrowding has been a problem for at least a decade. It reached 239 as of Oct. 20, still well under the 277 cap set by the state in May.The county began housing overflow inmates in other counties after the state imposed the cap, at a cost of $60 to $65 per inmate per day, not including transportation costs.As of Oct. 20, 38 inmates were housed in other counties, Warden Eugene Berdanier said at a prison board meeting.The prison, on Sanderson Street in Pottsville, has a capacity of 277 inmates. But the actual number of prisoners has for years exceeded that, and too many inmates were being triple-celled for too long, in violation of state law.Baldwin in May spoke of the need for a pre-release center.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.