BALTIMORE (Map, News) - More than half the inmates in the Harford County Detention Center are there because drugs, alcohol, mental illness or homelessness, Sheriff Jesse Bane told the County Council Tuesday.

Nuisance calls, traffic charges and minor offenses are landing those people in the county jail, and a lack of connection with treatment opportunities are allowing them to return repeatedly, he said.

“The jail is not being used for what the jail is intended to be used for — to hold prisoners awaiting trial or serving short sentences,” Bane said. “There are people there because of alcohol problems, substance-abuse problems, mental health issues or homelessness.

“If we can do something for these people, we can keep them off the street and keep them from being arrested again.”

 Monica Worrell, a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, said the Detention Center has a capacity of 474 inmates, and housed a daily average of 400 in 2007.

Bane told the council his office was working to identify partnerships with outside agencies such as the county Health Department, the Susquehanna Workforce Network and Harford Community College to link inmates with substance-abuse or mental health treatment, job placement or GED programs.

“We’re looking at who we can partner with so that when those people get out of jail, they can be reintroduced to society and won’t be back in jail within a week,” he said.

Edgewood community activist Mildred Samy said she is working with Bane and County Executive David Craig to bring Harford a job-placement program for former offenders.

The repeated incarceration of minor offenders is not helping ease Bane’s fears about crowding at the facility.

A groundbreaking is expected this summer for a 290-bed addition. But that addition was planned and designed before the Base Realignment and Closure decision, expected to bring as many as 20,000 new residents to the county, according to a Sage Policy Group study commissioned by the county.

The jail may have the capacity to keep up for a few years, but the next possible expansion — adding a second story to one wing of the facility — would be difficult if the jail is fully occupied, Bane said. The better plan would be to plan that expansion soon, he said, and try to cut down on the number of inmates being housed there.

“Why should we continue to spend all the money we can to put prisoners into jail and not spend anything to keep them out?” Bane said.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com