Currently, Bradford County has 125 inmates, down from 158 in January, Peter Quattrini Jr., deputy warden of the Bradford County jail, said.
A population of 125 is "very low" compared to what it has been, Nancy Schrader, chairman of the Bradford County commissioners, said. The jail, located in West Burlington Township, has a capacity of 118 inmates.
As of last week, Bradford County was no longer housing any excess prisoners at the Tioga County Prison, Quattrini said.
Since April 2001, Bradford County has spent $1.5 million to house its excess prisoners at the Tioga County Prison, which has been a drain on the county budget, Schrader said.
"We're certainly glad we've been able to bring them home," Schrader said. "I'm very pleased that the number (of Bradford County inmates) is down. I hope they stay down."
However, Schrader said there will still need to be an expansion of the Bradford County Correctional Facility because some areas of the prison are still crowded, such as the maximum security unit and the "classification unit," which is where new prisoners are housed while jail employees determine their security risk.
And Schrader cautioned that the number of inmates could go up again.
It's only in the last few weeks that the number of inmates has been so low, she said.
Some county officials said that Bradford County may still need to send excess prisoners to the Tioga County Prison if its inmate population goes up again.
The size of the planned expansion of the Bradford County jail has been reduced, and it could be reduced even further, Schrader said.
Last year, the commissioners had planned an expansion of the jail to 276 beds. The commissioners recently downsized the planned expansion to 197 beds, due in large part to the success of an expanded house arrest program where prisoners wear ankle bracelets to electronically monitor their whereabouts.
Schrader said Wednesday that it is possible that the county could divide up the bids for the expansion of the jail into a base bid - which would include the renovations of the jail and the addition of 32 beds into areas of the jail that definitely need more space - as well as a series of alternate, or optional bids.
The optional bids would be for other areas of the jail that could be expanded if the commissioners decided to go that route, Schrader said.
The 32 beds would be located in the maximum-security unit, the classification unit and the female unit, she said.
Beyond the 32 beds that definitely need to be added, "the question is what other areas, if any, need to be expanded," she said.
Schrader said the commissioners will evaluate the inmate population at the jail over the next couple of months before finalizing their plans for the expansion/renovation at the jail.
Quattrini noted that, according to the state Department of Corrections, the jail is supposed to operate at no more than 80 percent of its capacity - which is 95 inmates.
That would give jail employees the ability to place new prisoners in the units where they are an appropriate security risk, he said.
But Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko said the fact that the jail is not operating at 80 percent of capacity is not a good reason to expand the jail.
"In a perfect world, that (operating at 80 percent) would be the perfect solution," McLinko said. "But we don't live in a perfect world."
He said the jail has never actually been cited by the Department of Corrections for being overcrowded.
The county has only received warnings from the DOC about the overcrowding, he said.