Lancaster County Corrections Director Mike Thurber has asked county leaders to let him jail even more inmates outside the county, citing continued overcrowding at the complex at 10th and J streets.

During a quarterly meeting of the Lancaster County Board of Corrections on Thursday, Thurber asked to house as many as 100 county jail inmates elsewhere.

“I budgeted for 70, but I’m not going to make it,” he said, noting he has inmates sleeping in rooms designed as recreation areas.

County commissioners didn’t take formal action on the request, which comes six months after he won approval to move as many as 70 inmates to relieve overcrowding, nearly doubling the number of inmates he already had going to Platte County. In May, the board signed off on a deal with Butler County, and Thurber has been talking to other counties to get up to the allotted number.

So far, he has moved 60 inmates and has been trying to find beds for the remaining 10. He said he believes he can accomplish that quickly and mentioned Douglas, Hall and York counties as possibilities.

“If you find them, come back,” board Chairman Bob Workman said.

A budget adopted by the board on Tuesday included $1.3 million to keep 70 inmates outside the county.

That budget could absorb Thurber’s new request, although it will depend on the daily rate officials negotiate, said Dennis Meyer, the county’s budget and fiscal officer.

The county jail at 10th and J streets, which has a capacity of 237, has been overcrowded and out of compliance with state standards since 2002, officials have said.

Overcrowded as well is the minimum-security complex at Air Park, capacity 136. That site had an average daily population of 151.8 from April to June this year. That’s up from 144.4 the same period last year, according to a quarterly report delivered to the board Thursday.

The report also noted that the offender population has reached an all-time high: an average of 480.9 a day from April to June, including inmates housed downtown, Air Park and outside the county. That’s up from 425 for the same period last year.

Thurber cited an increase in felony arrests, more drunken driving arrests, forgery and methamphetamine as possible causes. But overall, it comes down to more people living in Lancaster County, he said.

“We’re just a larger community.”

Since the jail was built in 1991, Lancaster County’s population has grown about 23 percent and today is more than 267,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

County officials are planning to build a new jail at Southwest 40th and West O streets. Earlier this week the County Board approved the purchase of 37 acres of land for it.

Consultants have estimated the project could cost $94 million, although commissioners have not decided how much they’re willing to spend or how to pay for it.

Reach Jean Ortiz at 473-7107 or jortiz@journalstar.com.