Schuylkill County has begun the process of moving inmates to other facilities to reduce crowding at its prison.

Six female inmates from Schuylkill County were recently moved to the state correctional institute at Muncy, in Lycoming County.And on Wednesday, the county commissioners voted 2-0 to approve a contract to move male prisoners to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County, near Philadelphia. Frank Staudenmeier was absent.The county is under an agreement with the state department of corrections that requires them to stop housing inmates three to a cell.The prison has experienced overcrowding for more than a decade, exacerbated by a more recent rise in drug-related crimes in Schuylkill County and beyond. In January, there were as many as 51 inmates triple-celled at a time."I just want to make sure we are out of the triple-celling," commissioner Gary Hess said. "I don't want it to be that when DOC comes back, we are not up to our agreement."The agreement calls for prisoners will be housed at George W. Hill at a cost of $65 per day. They are expected to be moved within the month. Commissioner George Halcovage said Wednesday that the exact date would not be disclosed for security reasons.The cost of housing the inmates is more than the $45 it costs to house prisoners at the Schuylkill County Correctional Facility, but it was the best deal that the county could find to alleviate overcrowding right now.Halcovage said they hoped to move the inmates to Cumberland County, but it required a two-year commitment, and a minimum number of prisoners - something he said would have probably increased the county's expenses.The process took longer than expected. The county had to throw out its first list of prisoners who could potentially be moved because of the time the process took.But now officials are confident about getting the numbers down.In addition to reducing overcrowding at SCCF, moving the prisoners will also serve as a fact-finding mission for the prison board. Halcovage said that the facility has quality pre-release facilities and mental health treatment.After they address the overcrowding woes, the county commissioners want to look at developing their own facility for inmates who are being released."We want to look at their programs and see if they are something we can utilize. This is just the first step of what we're doing, but we had to address the triple celling first," Halcovage said.