CLINTON, Tenn. (WVLT) -- An East Tennessee Jailer says he is dealing with serious over-crowding everyday. But, he says Anderson County is not alone in their fight to house the ever-increasing inmate population.

He says it will take a community to fix the over-crowding.

It is a potential safety issue for not only the jail staff.. but the community surrounding if a jail has *fifty percent more inmates than they're supposed to. But, it's an issue jailers face on a daily basis.

Anderson County Chief Jailer, Avery Johnson said, "We're consistently housing well over 300, our average daily population for the last 3 months was 302."

The Anderson County Jail added on to the building just 3 years ago to handle the growing inmate population. Now, they're continuously running out of space.

"That's one of the regulations that you violate when you start overcrowding a facility, is that you don't have the bed space available, inmates are required to have so many square feet per inmate, and when you're over your capacity the only thing you can do is just lay a mat in the floor for them," said Johnson.

Their maximum capacity is 226, but Johnson says he would feel much more comfortable if they could house less than that, "So we would have the ability to classify inmates and move them around, to separate those individuals that may be a harm to other inmates."

Instead his correction officers are in the units 24-7 with inmates.

He said, "There's always a safety concern when you're dealing with inmates." But, Johnson feels his staff is safe, at least for now.

"If we got more prisoners than we have now, I would have concern," said Johnson.

And since crime isn't slowing, Johnson feels there could be options other than the cell, for some inmates. "I feel that programs, alternative programs do work, it has to be supported by the community. I think if more of that was done, that could be an alternative, that could save on some bed space," said Johnson.

In the mean time, they'll continue to spend about 5-million dollars a year.

He said, "It is a societal issue, that's going to affect our kids futures and the costs that we have to pay."

Johnson says at a recent state jailers conference he spoke with at least 60 other jail administrators out of the 95 counties, and all of them are dealing with the same over-crowding issue. So, he said now is the time for each county to decide how they want to deal with the their inmate population, before they literally cannot fit any more people in the jails.