The cost of housing overflow Schuylkill County prison inmates in other jails to alleviate overcrowding is approaching $1 million so far this year.

Warden Eugene Berdanier at a public Prison Board meeting Wednesday said the cost as of Wednesday was $938,936, about $5,000 over what was anticipated for this point.

Last year, it cost the county $1.3 million to house inmates elsewhere.

That figure does not include transportation or overtime.

In May 2016, the state Department of Corrections ordered the county to stop accepting new inmates until it got the population below a 277-inmate cap.

The department said too many inmates were being housed three to a cell.

To comply, Schuylkill began housing overflow inmates at other jails — at a cost of about $65-$70 per inmate per day.

The DOC lifted the restriction three months later, after the county kept the numbers down.

As of Wednesday, the jail held 260 inmates, with another 67 inmates housed elsewhere: six in Berks County, 51 in Centre County, three in Columbia County, three in Lackawanna County and four in Snyder County.

Prison Board Chairman/President Judge William E. Baldwin, noting that another state inspection is looming, questioned Berdanier on the numbers.

The warden said 22 inmates were currently triple-celled, but that seven inmates were about to be transferred to other prisons.

Baldwin said inmates need to be moved out more efficiently.

“We’ve got to keep (the numbers) down,” he said. “They’ll be looking at triple celling. We don’t want to be shut down again.”

Berdanier also said talks are moving along on another requirement the state would be eyeing, emergency planning coordination with the state prisons at Mahanoy and Frackville.

They met on Aug. 21, Berdanier said.

Baldwin asked him about the timetable, saying it had been a “major issue in the last inspection.”

Berdanier said plans are expected to come together within the next month.

In other matters, Sheriff Joseph G. Groody said three men have been cleared to be hired as part-time correctional officers. Berdanier had said there were nine vacancies.