The Oakland County Jail was forced to release prisoners as its population was stretching capacity.

Undersheriff Michael McCabe told the Oakland Press that by 7 p.m. Tuesday, 62 releases were received by various district courts, and officials decided to release 40 inmates. The 22 others were reportedly not released because they had detainers from other counties.

The jail had apparently been between 30 and 40 inmates over its 1,640 rated bed space for 11 days. Sheriff Michael Bouchard notified Oakland County officials of the emergency on July 4, according to the paper.

At 3 a.m. Wednesday, a head count was taken, and the jail was 19 inmates under its rated capacity, ending the emergency, the paper reported.

Those released early on bond or early from their sentences were incarcerated for retail fraud, possession of marijuana and drunken driving. One defendant was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery, McCabe told the paper. Judges said none of those released were high-risk.

Oakland County officials were within hours of having to release at least 164 prisoners from the jail because of an overcrowding emergency, according to the paper.

"We've been struggling for as many years as I've been here to reduce the jail population," McCabe told the paper. "It's probably going to occur again. We're heading into our busy season, July and August. More people go to jail in the summer."

For the overcrowding emergency to be declared again, the jail would have to be over limit for seven days, and then the court would have to be notified again, McCabe told the paper.

"We're in a temporary reprieve," Chief Oakland Circuit Judge Joan E. Young told the paper Wednesday. "It's not my goal to release prisoners early. My goal is to shore up the procedures to move the cases faster and get the prisoners transported out of the county jail and into the state system, if that's where they're going."

Under a 1982 law governing jail overcrowding, which provides for three business days after the court was notified to certify the overcrowding, Young would have been required to go through the list of prisoners and reduce the jail population to 90 percent of its capacity, the paper reported.

Young reportedly urged area district judges to spend time on Tuesday re-examining their dockets to determine if they had any nonviolent offenders who could be released on bond.