BRYAN CO., OK - It's an ongoing problem for many jails: Too many inmates and not enough room. And while the Bryan County Sheriff isn't turning away arrestees at the door, he is asking local law enforcement to help out with capacity levels.

“If it's a crime of a certain nature he's going to take them regardless, I think it’s collectively he's asking all agencies to help him and the county any way you can," said Calera Police Chief Don Hyde.

That help comes in the way of reducing the number of inmates at the Bryan County Jail. Sheriff Bill Sturch sent out a letter Wednesday to local law enforcement agencies asking they not send anyone to the county jail on city misdemeanor warrants or charges.

"We don’t dictate to them what they do we just ask them to please try and help us, we're over crowded. And I think that each chief of police in each of the cities understand that and they have ways and means that they can handle that situation,” said Sheriff Sturch.

Sturch said currently they've only got 115 beds available, and in the past three weeks they've had as many as 130 inmates. But to stay in compliance with Oklahoma State Jail Standards, they've got to get below capacity within 48 hours.

Sheriff Sturch is thinking long term. He said within the next 12 to 18 months they hope to have expanded jail space and add roughly 80 more beds.

But until then, local law enforcement said they're happy to do anything they can to relieve the overcrowding.

"I think all the chiefs respectfully in our county, they don’t want to be on the bad side they want to be more of a solution to the problem than they are on the opposite end of that,” said Chief Hyde.

The Sheriff explained that part of the ongoing problem is processing inmates through the court system.

"The law enforcement has grown but the processing rate has not grown that much, so it's a big problem and I know the DA (District Attorney) and the judges work very hard for us in this situation and they have in this past week, a tremendous job,” said Sheriff Sturch.

But he's made one thing clear, if someone belongs behind bars that's where they'll be.

"If you get a bad guy out there, he's a burglar, he's a rapist, a murderer or whatever those people are going to go to jail, I don’t care if we're 40 or 50 over capacity we're going to put them in jail," assured Sheriff Sturch.

Sheriff Sturch said as of Thursday they only have five beds to spare, but are currently below capacity. And he thinks within the next ten years it'll be time for a new jail in Bryan County.