If Schuylkill County fails to get its prison population down to capacity levels by Nov. 24, the state could take steps to bar it from accepting new inmates.

"They could effectively close us down," said President Judge William Baldwin.In a related matter, commissioners at a public meeting Wednesday authorized the "development and execution" of contracts/memorandums of understanding with other counties to use their prisons to house excess inmates.Which prisons would house Schuylkill inmates and at what cost per day has yet to be determined.The county prison, on Sanderson Street in Pottsville, has a capacity of 277 inmates. But the actual number of prisoners has for more than three years routinely exceeded that, and too many inmates are being triple-celled for too long in violation of state law.As of this morning, the population was 291.The state wants the problem fixed, fast.Last week, the prison board announced it would seek county prisons to take the overflow at costs up to $75 per day per inmate.That doesn't include the costs of taking them to and from the other prisons. The list of potentials includes York, Centre, Cumberland, Monroe, Lehigh, Luzerne and Lebanon, as well as state prisons.It costs the county $44.23 a day to keep each inmate.On Wednesday, the prison board signed an agreement with the state Department of Corrections agreeing to get the numbers down.That can be through sending inmates to other counties; through 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."The solution isn't going to be cheap," Baldwin said. "All the options are expensive, but we don't have a choice here."Public safety is the priority whatever the option, officials said."We will be very careful about who we release on monitoring," said county solicitor Al Marshall.According to the agreement, the county must immediately ensure all offenders who qualify for the pre-release program are released into it.By Sept. 1, the county 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.The prison board and commissioners voted to accept the agreement.Past solutionsThe prison, built in 1912, has been overcrowded since at least 2002, Baldwin said.Commissioners about 10 years ago nixed a plan to build a center near the state prison in West Mahanoy Township because it would have cost too much.Last year, the county launched a pre-release program that involves electronic monitoring and strict supervision of some qualified inmates in order to relieve overcrowding."It hasn't made a serious dent in our population," Baldwin said.While the plan to send inmates to other counties seems like the best immediate option, it's not a good long-term plan."Diverting is not the ultimate solution," said Prison Board President and county Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr.Is a new buildingthe solution?Commissioner Gary J. Hess called for the county to "make sure we're aggressive" in pursuing another facility "so we're not in this diversion for a long time, because I don't think the finances could hold.""I hope we decide to do another intermediate type facility because there are a number of people over at the prison who don't really have to be in that kind of facility. But they're not ready to be out on the street."A brick-and-mortar center would be expensive, he said, but not as expensive as housing inmates in other counties long-term.A pre-release center would also help in getting more qualified inmates on parole.Parole may seem like a way to help relieve overcrowding, but Baldwin said there are at least 15 to 20 inmates at any given time who cannot be paroled because they are homeless."We can't parole them unless we supervise them, and we can't supervise them if they are just out roaming around on the street and we don't know where they are," he said.A pre-release center would provide an address, Halcovage said.Crime and far-flung punishmentOvercrowding is an issue in many county prisons.The numbers of county inmates increased by 94 percent between 1990 and 2011. Halcovage at a July 15 Prison Board meeting said 1,687 inmates in Pennsylvania are housed in other counties.Locally, last year, Carbon County housed 26 inmates elsewhere; Lehigh housed 19; Monroe, 9, and Northampton, 42, according to the Department of Corrections.Warden Eugene Berdanier said those inmates could be housed elsewhere for brief periods and a variety of reasons, not necessarily because of overcrowding.