Southern Indiana's Vanderburgh County facing jail troubles

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - Jail overcrowding in southern Indiana's largest county has local officials looking to other states for possible solutions.

The Vanderburgh County sheriff says the county has had more than 800 inmates during recent weekends while its jail in Evansville was designed to hold 553 people. Sheriff Dave Wedding says about 100 inmates are being held in six other area jails.

The Evansville Courier & Press reports Wedding and other officials traveled this past week to Florida, where they toured a jail near Gainesville for ideas on designing and operating a larger detention facility.

Wedding says Vanderburgh County's jail troubles are exacerbated by a state requirement that it hold about 100 low-level felony offenders rather than sending them to state prisons.

A county committee is considering jail options.

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Information from: Evansville Courier & Press, http://www.courierpress.com