According to a court document with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi the Pearl River County Jail has exceeded its population capacity for the past month.

The document states that the maximum capacity for the jail is 360 and it had a monthly average of 407 priosoners a day for the month of June.

Chief Deputy Julie Flowers said the jail has had an influx of prisoners recently due to recent court activity. Currently, 15 prisoners are there on court orders with an additional five waiting to go to Whitfield for get drug and alcohol treatment.

“Court is in order so we have additional people here,” Flowers said.

She said the current population is at 435.

Flowers said there are plans to build an additional facility on site to house about 80 state inmates. However she said that additional facility is a requirement to house state inmates in the work program and is not linked to the overcrowded prison population.