Schuylkill County stands to save a significant amount of money housing its overflow inmates closer to home.

At a Prison Board meeting last Wednesday, Warden Michael Buchanan said that as of that day, 55 inmates were housed in other prisons to avoid overcrowding at the county jail on Sanderson Street in Pottsville.

The jail was built in 1851, and in 2016, the state Department of Corrections capped the inmate capacity at 277. Of the 55 current overflow inmates, 44 are being housed at Northumberland County Jail, which is about 26 miles from Pottsville.

The remaining inmates are split between Centre and Columbia counties.

Housing the inmates in Northumberland County “saves money because its closer and therefore more efficient,” said Commissioners Chairman Larry J. Padora after the meeting.

The savings comes through less money spent on transportation and overtime.

Schuylkill pays other prisons between $70-$75 per inmate per day.

County Controller Sharyn M. Yackenchick detailed the costs.

“For Centre County, last month we paid $2,250, and Northumberland County last month to house our to house our inmates was $93,880, and Columbia County, if the new contract is for the same amount as the old one, it’s $72 (per inmate) per day,” she said.

Commissioner and Prison Board Chairman Barron L. Hetherington said, “You look at the number of people that are outsourced in Northumberland County. I mean, that’s huge. We used to have a whole bunch of people in Centre County and all over the place.”

He credited Padora with shifting the bulk of the overflow inmates to Northumberland.

“Mr. Padora worked quite closely with commissioners from Northumberland and got that set up. So that’s much quicker. It’s a lot easier for the sheriff’s office to transport people. I mean, there’s still a daily cost to house inmates, but that transportation and overtime for the sheriff’s office, that’s no longer a big issue,” he said.

Padora, he said, initially spoke with the Northumberland County commissioners at a recent County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania conference, Hetherington said.

After the public meeting Wednesday, Padora said Northumberland built a new prison after the old one burned down in 2015.

The new prison, he said, wasn’t full.

“So I said, if you give us a better price, we’ll send the prisoners there. But if they act up, you can’t send them back right away.”

Padora said Buchanan is working with Northumberland Warden Brian Wheary to arrange the particulars.

Schuylkill had sent inmates to Northumberland years ago. But the warden at the time would immediately return inmates who misbehaved.

Schuylkill has for years sought solutions other than what officials call “outsourcing” of overflow inmates. But alternatives have proven too costly.