Schuylkill County Prison officials are continuing to transfer out inmates to reduce overcrowding, but they say the facility continues to get new intakes.

The county, which is under pressure from the state Department of Corrections to reduce overcrowding, moved 18 male inmates to a facility in Delaware County on Wednesday. That brings the total number of inmates that have been transferred to 30, since the county began the process earlier this month.But because of the perpetual flow of new inmates, especially female ones, the prison is still looking to transfer more inmates."It is making a difference, but the intakes continue to increase," Warden Eugene Berdanier said.The prison had a total population of 274 as of Thursday morning.Of the 30 inmates that have been transferred out of the facility, 27 males are now housed at a county jail in Delaware County. Three females are housed at the State Correctional Institute at Muncy, located in Lycoming County.Berdanier said that they have to continue transferring out men, because of the number of intakes that will be coming into the prison in the near future. Berdanier said that just after the 18 inmates were transferred out on Wednesday, they had another 17 intakes.That means there are currently 35 inmates triple-celled, down from more than 50 in January."We're trying to eliminate triple-celling as best we can and we're seeking any available resources to get to that point," Berdanier said.The facility identified by the county for transfers, the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton, Delaware County, has plenty of room for male inmates, but the cost to house an inmate is greater than it is in Schuylkill County.But female inmates are more difficult to move. The state allowed Schuylkill County to move three inmates to SCI Muncy at the start of the process, but they are currently working with other counties for a longer-term solution."They offered us the ability to get some females out initially, but we understand they have their own housing concerns as well," Berdanier said.The county commissioners have been looking at their own facilities to see if the county could open a pre-release center that would reduce the burden on the century-old Schuylkill County Prison. Berdanier said that process is still in the discussion phase.