Overcrowding in prisons causing correctional department overtime

The Prince George’s County Department of Corrections wants to remove 100 inmates from the county’s jail as overcrowding and understaffing cause overtime to climb millions of dollars over budget, department officials told County Council members Thursday.

In the last three years, the county’s jail population has risen from about 1,200 inmates to about 1,500, but staffing levels have failed to keep up, causing violence to rise and conditions to plummet, corrections officials said. The 583-member department has 47 vacant positions.