With the cost of housing overflow prisoners in other counties costing at least $3,540 last month alone, Schuylkill County has advanced plans for an intermediate punishment center.

County Administrator Gary R. Bender said the county has received nine responses so far to its search for requests for proposals for a center.Companies have until May 12 to submit their proposals. The county expects to choose one on June 14."We'll get a committee together to see who offers the most, and then work on a proposal," Bender said."We'll see what qualifications match up with what we want to do, then work with that company on price," he said.Companies responding as of Wednesday were Vitetta Architects & Engineers, Eddystone, Delaware County; Arris Engineering Group, LTD, Plains, Luzerne County; Hammel Associates Architects LLC, Lancaster, Lancaster County; ONVIA, Seattle, Washington; CGL Companies (A Hunt Company), Miami, Florida; Highland Associates, Clarks Summit, Lackawanna County; LATTA Tech, Plano, Texas; BI Incorporated, a GEO Group Company, Boulder, Colorado; and L.R. Kimball, Ebensburg, Cambria County.The county is looking for companies that have design experience retrofitting an existing building for use as an intermediate punishment center; design experience for new construction of a center; a firm that owns and operates an intermediate punishment center with availability for 125-175 occupants from Schuylkill County; or a firm to operate an intermediate punishment center in a facility owned by Schuylkill County.The county is under pressure to keep the number of inmates housed in its aging jail, on Sanderson Street in Pottsville, capped at 277.The jail has been overcrowded for years; the current opioid epidemic is adding to the problem.To alleviate overcrowding, the state Department of Corrections in May ordered the county to stop accepting new inmates until it got the population below a daily average of 277.It lifted the restriction in August.The county reduced the population by sending overflow inmates to prisons in Centre, Columbia, Delaware, Lackawanna, and Berks County at a cost of $60 to $72 per inmate per day.As of Wednesday morning, the total number of inmates in the prison was 249, with 59 housed elsewhere.