Schuylkill County will ship 40 inmates to prisons in Delaware and Lycoming counties to comply with a state order to alleviate overcrowding.

Fifteen women will be sent to the state correctional facility at Muncy, about 64 miles away, at a cost of $60 per inmate per day.Twenty-five men will be sent to George Hill Correctional Facility, Thornton, about 83 miles away, at a cost of up to $60 a day each under a one-year agreement.It costs Schuylkill $44.23 to house each inmate each day. The diversion program is a short-term solution the county will use as it works on a permanent solution to the overcrowding problem.The county has also contacted York, Centre, Cumberland, Monroe, Lehigh, Luzerne and Lebanon prisons, as well as state prisons, to handle Schuylkill’s overflow. Delaware and Muncy offered the best deals.The aging prison, on Sanderson Street in Pottsville, has an “ideal” capacity of 250 inmates, but can hold 277. As of Tuesday, the count was 284.The overflow is forcing the jail to house as many as three inmates in cells designed to hold two. That’s only allowed by the state in temporary, emergency situations.On July 22, the prison board signed an agreement with the state Department of Corrections agreeing to reduce the prison population.Under the agreement, the county promised to meet these timelines: By Sept. 1, it must submit a monthly written status report to the state describing its efforts to comply.By Nov. 24, the population must be down to the prison’s capacity, 277, and not exceed that except on a temporary basis of up to 30 days.By Jan. 1, if the state finds the county failed to comply, it will issue a written statement and meet with the board to discuss the matter.By Feb. 1, if there is no solution, the Department of Corrections Secretary John E. Wetzel may “issue an order classifying the prison as ineligible to receive any additional prisoners sentenced to a maximum of six months or more but less than five years until further order of the Department,” the agreement says.Options include the diversion program, the county’s pre-release program, which keeps inmates at home with electronic monitoring and close supervision; paroling inmates, or building 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.The county has also launched the pre-release program that involves electronic monitoring and strict supervision of some qualified inmates in order to relieve overcrowding.The prison, built in 1912, has been overcrowded since at least 2002, President Judge William Baldwin has said.Schuylkill is not alone in its plight.According to the state Department of Corrections, county prison populations exploded by 94 percent between 1990 and 2011, soaring from 17,915 inmates to 34,823.Times News reporter Chris Reber contributed to this report.