Despite concerted efforts to keep the Schuylkill County prison population below a monthly average of 277, the number of inmates is again rising.

In July 2017, the peak census was 271, the most so far this year.The monthly average for July was 254, with 42 inmates housed outside the county.It costs the county between $60 and $65 a day per inmate to send them to other prisons.As of last Wednesday, 44 inmates were housed at other prisons. They were Berks County, 12; Centre County, six, Columbia County, one; Snyder County, 17; and Lackawanna County, eight, Warden Eugene Berdanier said.According to his monthly report, the highest average happened in March, when the county jail housed 255 inmates.The "outsourcing" of inmates is a way to keep the population below a monthly average of 277.That's what the county and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections agreed to in July 2015 to correct overcrowding.In May 2016, the DOC forbade the county from accepting new inmates whose sentences were at least six months. That rule was lifted last August.The county was then required to submit biweekly population reports to the DOC, but the state relieved it of that duty last month.To achieve a long-range solution, county officials in June hired Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates of Mechanicsburg for a proposal to update a 2008 needs assessment it had done so the county can more accurately determine the specifications for an intermediate punishment center.