The anticipated cost of housing overflow Schuylkill County prison inmates in other jails is expected to cost at least $1.2 million this year.

That’s about $300,000 more than the $918,249 budgeted for the “outsourcing.”

The figures surfaced Wednesday when county Finance Director Paul E. Buber requested the $300,000 budget adjustment for the prison.

The county started shipping overflow inmates out to other jails after the state Department of Corrections in May 2016 ordered it to stop accepting new inmates until it got the population below a daily average of 277.

The DOC lifted the restriction three months later, after the county kept the numbers down by housing inmates at other counties’ prisons.

The $918,249 budget figure was based on housing 40 inmates per day at other prisons at a cost of $60-$70 per inmate per day, Buber said.

There are also transportation and overtime costs. The money comes from the county’s general fund.

At one point on Wednesday morning, the county prison teemed with 300 inmates, with another 80 housed in other counties, Warden Eugene Berdanier said.

Last month, there was one week when 100 inmates were out of the county.

“We’re going to hit that number again soon,” he said.

As the number of inmates rises, so do the costs of sending them elsewhere.

The $1.2 million is about half a mill, Buber said. The county last month approved a preliminary 2018 budget that calls for a 1-mill property tax increase.

Berdanier said that in November, 94 inmates were transferred to other facilities. The average cost that month was $83,477.

Commissioners’ Chairman George F. Halcovage Jr. said the county is doing all it can to keep the inmate population under a daily average of 277.

Offenders are placed on electronic monitoring or on probation when they meet certain criteria. The county last January began a drug court to steer offenders away from prison.

Commissioner Gary J. Hess mentioned a study being done to develop specifications for an intermediate punishment facility.

Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, Mechanicsburg, is being paid $38,400 to update its 2008 prison study to determine what the county will need over the next 20 years.

The update, which will take several months, involves determining the needs of the intermediate punishment center through the review of current inmate statistics and update population projections and building program requirements.

Commissioner Frank J. Staudenmeier asked Berdanier if it was just Schuylkill that was experiencing overcrowding.

“It’s widespread throughout the commonwealth,” the warden replied.

The tsunami of opioid addiction has fueled the overcrowding, he said.

“The faucet never turns off,” Staudenmeier said.