The cost of housing overflow Schuylkill County prison inmates outside the county has hit $334,619 so far this year.

As of last week, 80 inmates were housed in out-of-county prisons at a cost of about $65 per inmate per day.

There were four in Berks County, 38 in Centre County, 15 in Columbia County, 11 in Lackawanna County and 12 in Snyder County.

That price tag, paid from the county’s general fund, doesn’t include transportation or staff overtime costs.

In April, the county spent $135,249 to house an average of 75 inmates at the prisons, said Warden Eugene Berdanier.

The county began housing overflow inmates at 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.

The prison has 253 inmates, according to latest numbers.

Because the influx of offenders is so great the sally port at the prison, on Sanderson Street in Pottsville, is often jammed full of people being brought into the jail and the officers who accompany them.

Corrections officers are often needed to be pulled from their regular duties to help manage the crowd, Berdanier said.

Police officers bringing in the offenders are frustrated because they have to wait for long periods to be able to process the people.

Prison board Chairman and President Judge William E. Baldwin called for a committee composed of Berdanier, District Attorney Michael A. O’Pake, Sheriff Joseph G. Groody, a representative of the state police and municipal police officers.

The committee will help figure out how to streamline the intake process, Baldwin said.

The prison board is planning an intermediate punishment facility as a way to permanently resolve the overcrowding.

The county has hired Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, Mechanicsburg, for $38,400 to update its 2008 prison study to determine what the county’s needs will be over the next 20 years to help determine the nature of the facility.

The board has been discussing housing some inmates in the work release area.

Berdanier said there are currently only four or five inmates on work release. There are 44 beds in the area.

Baldwin last month raised the idea of using the vacant beds for overflow inmates.

Only inmates who meet certain standards would be housed in the work-release section.

The work release inmates who also occupy the area would be thoroughly searched upon their return from work to make sure they aren’t smuggling in contraband.

Baldwin said the county’s pre-release program has cut down the number of work release inmates, and that’s why the extra space is available.