The investigation into five Union County jail administrators will continue after two prisoners were indicted on third-degree escape charges Friday.

Otis Blunt and Jose Espinosa were arrested a month ago. The men broke out of jail Dec. 14 after two months passed without any officers checking their cells, allowing them to chisel through their cinderblock walls.

In Union County, the inmate population is nearing capacity, with 1,100 inmates in the 1,200-person facility, according to freeholders' meeting minutes and the jail's Web site.

But in Cape, Ocean, Atlantic and Cumberland counties, actual jail populations exceed what the jail designs intended. And while lacking protocol has been pegged as the primary contributor to the Union County incident, cramped quarters compound administrative shortcomings, according to corrections experts.

It's common for county jails nationwide to be crowded - having more inmates than beds - according to the National Institute of Corrections, or NIC.

An annex and beds were added to increase the 450-inmate capacity of the Atlantic County correctional facility to 825, although between 1,110 and 1,200 inmates stay there on any given day, according to corrections officer George Herbert.

Ocean County's 280-inmate facility holds between 530 and 540 daily, according to Warden Theodore J. Hutler Jr.

And in Cape May, the 131-bed space holds 280 to 300 inmates, according to Warden Richard Herron.

Cumberland County did not respond to repeated requests for the most recent daily inmate population at the facility. In 2005, 750 were typically housed each day at the 550-inmate building.

The state Department of Corrections audits county jails every year. While several checkpoints pertain to the space and prisoner population, the state does not impose guidelines related to those factors.

Herron said an architect is conducting a feasibility study for an expansion in Cape May. Bids within the scope of pre-determined cost parameters have been received for an Ocean County expansion project slated for completion in 2010 and expected to meet needs through 2025, Hutler said. And the state recently agreed to decrease the number of state inmates kept at the Atlantic County Jail from 115 to 75 at a time. The reduction will mean $1 million in lost revenue - the state pays for its inmates to stay at county jails - in exchange for less-crowded conditions.

Jails nationwide have for decades struggled to fund expansion projects and increase staffing levels at a rate on par with local population increases, according to the NIC.

Herbert hopes ongoing contract negotiations will yield higher salaries for corrections officers, which he believes will decrease turnover and subsequently improve operations at the jail. Herbert has been a corrections officer in Atlantic County for 14 years. He's also the president of the Atlantic County Corrections Officers FOP Lodge 34. The organization has been in contract negotiations for 14 months. The number of corrections officers has remained constant amid an increased prison population, he said.

"There's no more staff to help ease that burden, so things suffer," Herbert said.

As the number of officers per prisoner decreases, so does the frequency of cell inspections, random pat downs and area searches, and other elements of security protocol, Herbert said. Crowding not only limits contact between corrections officers and inmates, but also between prisoners and in-house psychological staff, who are often limited to contact with the "very seriously mentally ill," according to Steven Norton, a psychologist who has studied state, county and federal prisons.

According to a 2006 study from the U.S. Department of Justice, 64.2 percent of the local jail inmate population - versus 11 percent of the general population - had mental health problems. A cramped facility further reduces opportunities for psychological professionals to address the emotional effects of overcrowding, Norton said.

"When they have more opportunity for that, there (are) fewer problems for the population," he said.

Atlantic County offers drug and alcohol counseling and a GED program; Ocean County has psychiatric and psychological professionals. But for available resources to be effective, Herbert pointed out inmates must want to use them. And DOJ research show inmates are least likely to commit to such programs at local jails: about 17 percent do so in local jails, versus 34 percent in state and 24 percent in federal institutions.

"Some it will help and some just drop out - it's just not for them; it's just not a life they want to partake in," Herbert said.

Crowding can lead to feelings of desperation among prisoners and officers alike.

Norton pointed out that overcrowding magnifies tension, unrest and interpersonal problems that already exist among the population, Norton said.

"They might think this place is so bad, so intolerable, they have to get out of it," Norton said.

A cramped jail can also leave administration feeling saddled with an exhausting task.

"Overcrowding also leads to job burnout, so mandatory overtime rate skyrockets. When people call out, more officers aren't there and the ones who are there have to be utilized for 16-hour shifts, sometimes two in a row," Herbert said. "When you have all that work placed upon there two days in a row, it's taxing."

During the past six years, Cape May has hired 10 new corrections officers, Herron said. But to him, the organization of staff overshadows the number of personnel.

The facility planned in Ocean County and the potential building in Cape May will feature the direct supervision design, which maximizes the number of inmates officers can safely supervise prisoners, according to Hutler and Herron.

Still, both wardens acknowledged that awareness of inmate escape as a permanently present possibility is key to keeping staff on their toes.

Herron and Herbert said they've followed the Union County case.

"Any time you see (an escape), it's always a concern, but that's a concern you have every day you come to work here," Herron said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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