The Montgomery County Commissioners Court has created a committee to examine how to expand a jail system that is nearing its maximum capacity.

Randy McDaniel, deputy chief for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, said the inmate population has increased about 60 percent over the last eight years and is adding 10 more prisoners per day this year than last year. The jail is already nearing its maximum, McDaniel said, with about 1,240 beds of the maximum 1,253 beds already in use as of August.

McDaniel said the county is considering an expansion of the current jail of anywhere from one to four extra floors, with each floor capable of housing another 168 prisoners. Adding four floors could cost upwards of $18 million, he said, which does not count the personnel required to monitor the extra prisoners.

The county could also consider the creation of another jail with 1,200-1,500 beds, which McDaniel said could as much as $50 million.

"That's going to be up to commissioners court to decide what the most cost effective route is," he said.

Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said he is part of the steering committee for the jail expansion, and the county already has $13 million from the recent sale of the Joe Corley Detention Facility to use toward jail expansion. Noack said adding additional floors to the building would completely build out the jail, and expressed concern the jail could reach its maximum capacity again in a few years.

"We have a jail that was built in 1985," he said. "To continue to piecemeal this together, I don't know if it's wise to put another $15 million into an aging building in a time when the county is only going to grow."