by KYW's Mike Dunn

The Nutter administration -- struggling to deal with prison overcrowding -- is considering shipping 200 inmates to North Jersey, where a Passaic prison has room to spare.

With Philadelphia's prison population at a record 9,000-plus, officials are already being sued over putting three inmates in cells built for two.
 
Now, the city is looking at sending 200 inmates to Passaic County, NJ, where they have extra beds.

Civil rights attorney David Rudovsky (right), one of those suing, says the reason there is space at Passaic is that federal inmates were moved out after a judge ruled the conditions were deplorable:

"And for Philadelphia now to be considering sending its inmates to that dungeon is very disturbing."

But Mike Resnick, the mayor's chief legal counsel for public safety, believes that conditions at Passaic are acceptable:

"Our people have gone up, have seen the place, have toured, and are satisfied with the conditions."

And Resnick says a Philadelphia prisons official would be on site to monitor those conditions.

(File photos)